Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the world’s most popular and greatest football players the world has ever seen. He is gifted almost all the football talents there is, the others he has toned through his hard work. He is one of the fastest footballers in the planet. Defenders scramble trying to hold on to him when he is one of his goal runs.
But there is a speculation that he could just be one of the fastest runners in the Planet. Many observers have predicted him to run 100m in as low a time as 10.2 -10.6 seconds. Some even believing him to compete with Usain Bolt – the world’s fastest runner.
But the truth is – he is not in Usain Bolt’s region of running. Usain Bolt stands tall as the majestic king of 100m and 200m sprints and his record could stand the test of time for some more time. Usain Bolt has run the 100m at a record 9.58 seconds. As for Cristiano Ronaldo, he is not even the fastest footballer on the planet.
According to FIFA, the fastest footballer is Manchester United’s Antonio Valencia who reached a speed of 35.1 km/hr in an English Premier League match. He is followed by Gareth Bale at second position and Aaron Lennon at third. Cristiano Ronaldo comes in at fourth position.
Fastest players in the World | |||
Rank | Player name | Club | Top speed |
1 | Antonio Valencia | Manchester United | 35.1 km/h |
2 | Gareth Bale | Real Madrid | 34.7 km/h |
3 | Aaron Lenon | Tottenham | 33.8 km/h |
4 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 33.6 km/h |
5 | Theo Walcott | Arsenal | 32.7 km/h |
6 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 32.5 km/h |
7 | Wayne Rooney | Manchester United | 31.2 km/h |
8 | Franck Ribery | Bayern Munich | 30.7 km/h |
9 | Arjen Robben | Bayern Munich | 30.4 km/h |
10 | Alexis Sanchez | Barcelona | 30.1 km/h |
In this video from YouTube, we have Cristiano Ronaldo “race” against professional sprinter Angel David Rodríguez on Tested to the Limit. Ronaldo is approximately 10% behind Rodriguez in this 30m test which probably extrapolates to 11.0 and 11.5. But even running a 100m in 11 seconds is no easy feat and one can only wonder if the boy wonder from Portugal can do it.
But these stats can’t disappoint Football fans as they adore the Cristiano who scores goals at free will and terrifies defenders every single match day. And that’s all that matters.