Footballers are pretty fast. Perhaps with 2024 being an Olympic year, the temptation is even greater to compare them to real sprinters.
This summer’s Games in Paris may feature Kylian Mbappe, but they certainly won’t feature Usain Bolt. With the 2020 Olympics delayed and held behind closed doors in Tokyo in 2021, these are the first Olympics fans to attend since Bolt retired.
Bolt has become the de facto gold standard for measuring elite footballers and their sprinting abilities. It has become so common that Mbappe, one of the fastest footballers in the world today, was asked about the prospect of seeing them face off.
“That would be fun, why not sometime if we both have time?” I don’t expect much from the result,” Mbappé said. “He inspired everyone and I think everyone woke up late at night to watch one of Bolt’s races. I can to say that it was mutual and that I started to admire him first.
These words conjure up images of an 11-year-old Mbappé past his bedtime to see Bolt’s 100m world record (9.58 seconds) in Berlin in 2009 and gazing in awe at the double gold medals of Bolt over 100m and 200m at London 2012.
Commentators love to make these comparisons, most recently for Tottenham Hotspur’s Micky van de Ven, who recorded the highest top speed in Premier League history against Brentford. Starting from a standing start on the halfway line, he ate up the field to chase a ball and stop Keane Lewis-Potter.
It’s fast, in terms of pure speed. In fact, the The Premier League becomes sportier – seven of the 10 highest speeds, since 2020-21, were recorded this season. But extrapolating this top speed to an entire 100m doesn’t really work, especially since sprinters start from static, in blocks.
This is why Bolt’s “average” speed (no one in athletics looks at it, for the reason above) on his 100m world record is close to Van de Ven’s top speed. Bolt achieved more of 44 km/h between 60 and 80 meters during his 100 m world record, or 7 km/h faster than Van de Ven.
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Ironically, Bolt (6ft 5in; 196cm) is a better comparison for Van de Ven (6ft 4in) than Mbappe (5ft 10in). Even by sprinter standards, Bolt is big and heavy, which made him a very captivating sprinter to watch and a particularly devastating anchor leg in relays.
He didn’t beat his rivals, usually a few steps behind 6-foot-1 Justin Gatlin early on, because his (longer) legs couldn’t turn around as quickly. Bolt took longer to get out of his transition phase (acceleration) and into his drive phase (top speed), but once there he closed the gap and invariably flew over.
Bolt has won races from 45m maximizing his superior stride length and maintaining his speed when his rivals are tired – despite appearances, he doesn’t go any faster, his opponents simply tire sooner. Mbappe is much more of a Gatlin, or China’s Su Bingtian, who has the fastest start of any male sprinter.
All of this explains why Mbappé and Bolt have enjoyed success in their own sport, but would fall far short of reaching such levels if they crossed the border. Bolt proved that, with two pre-season games and an eight-week trial at the Central Coast Mariners in 2018, shortly after retiring from athletics.
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There are a few obvious reasons: his age at the time (well into his thirties and with a body worn down by decades of sprinting), plus a clear lack of technical ability, with former Perth Glory striker Andy Keogh claiming that the Bolt’s first contact was “like a trampoline”.
The less obvious – but equally important – reason is that football is less about sprinting and more about acceleration and deceleration.
A 2016 article by Norwegian researchers referred to the fact that accelerations occur between three and eight times more often in games than sprints – playing position, game state and physical fatigue depending on the minute of the game are all reasons to ‘such amplitude. For example, other studies found an average of 10 sprints per match (more than 30 km/h) per player, but up to 16 per match for wingers and five for central midfielders.
Watch clips of Bolt playing – and that’s only during the A-League pre-season – and while he stands out for his size and power, it really doesn’t translate as the physical demands are completely different. He never needed to sprint even 50 m (about half the length of a football field) and had difficulty decelerating quickly to shoot or beat an opponent.
Vicente del Bosque, manager of the Spain national team that won the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, explained the specific nature of Bolt’s strengths in a football environment: “For a team that counter-attacks strong and moves quickly towards open space, of course it would fit. It also depends because it’s not just about going 100, or 60, or 70 yards down the field. It involves repeating it several times and requires endurance.
Del Bosque refers to the ability to sprint repeatedly, football being intermittent – a mix of walking, jogging, running and sprinting. Bolt tried to play as a winger but lacked the sharpness over incredibly short distances to get away from a defender, let alone the technical ability to move quickly with the ball. His timing for attacking crosses was poor and he needed many more steps to decelerate after running than a “real” footballer.
When testing sprinting ability, clubs look at players taller than 30 meters. Within the PSV Eindhoven academy, their benchmark for first team level is under four seconds, but specifically the first 10 meters in under 1.9 seconds from a static start – speed peak performance is important, but the ability to get there quickly matters more.
Then consider that football is all about different types of sprints. Bolt runs in a straight line, with the exception of the 200m where he has to run a turn (historically one of his strengths). In football, sprints involve changes of direction, running in arcs and zigzags, then decelerating for just a few steps – this could be to attack a cross, press on an opponent without overcommitting or move a defender to create a meter of space.
Take what has become a trademark goal of Mbappé: it’s about accelerating quickly then decelerating to force a defender to face off. For example, at home against AC Milan in the Champions League this season.
Warren Zaire-Emery releases Mbappé in front of Fikayo Tomori.
Tomori tries to defend laterally but has to step back when Mbappe accelerates – note that he dribbles with his laces, as this naturally corresponds to the running motion (versus using the sole).
Then Mbappe steps in and brakes, with Tomori rushing to turn around and block the shot. As he does so, he comes face to face and Mbappe shoots through his legs and into the near post, with the typical far post decoy rooting goalkeeper Mike Maignan to the spot.
Nearly 40% of Premier League goals in 2018-19 were marked following a deceleration and/or a turn. This is why England pitted Kyle Walker against Mbappe in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals – he could match Mbappe in top speed, but also had comparable acceleration and deceleration.
If Mbappe tried to pass him, Walker could advance step by step, but was also able to slow down quite quickly when Mbappe tried to go inside. Walker said his problems in this match came when he “slowed down too much”, nothing to do with his speed, but knowing how and when to use it.
This may all be a bit of fun, but if anyone is imagining that Mbappé could truly compete with an elite sprinter, or vice versa, they are sadly mistaken.
(Top photos: Getty Images)