5 footballers who can become sprinters
Football is not just restricted to kicking the ball around and eventually putting it in the back of the net to score a goal! It goes beyond that; dribbles, passes, runs are all integral to being a quality footballer.
As per recent statistics, an average football player runs around 11.7 kilometres in 90 minutes. Thus, it is essentially a game made up short and long sprints! Players burst into numerous short and sharp bursts of acceleration time and again. The ability to frequently complete these high intensity runs with extremely short periods of rest gives some players an edge above the others.
Sportskeeda looks at 5 footballers who could have had an alternate career in sprinting.
#5 Hector Bellerin
(Video Courtesy: FC Cunha YouTube Channel)
Hector Bellerin, he is nothing short of a speed demon! The Spaniard broke Theo Walcott’s 40m club sprint record in 2015 which made him the fastest man at Arsenal. Next up, in 2016, he ran the 40-metre distance faster than what Usain Bolt managed during his 100-metre world record stride in 2009.
Bellerin ran the 40m in 4.42 seconds while Bolt had taken 4.64 seconds to cover the first four/tenths of the track. The Arsenal full-back would have been a full two metres in front of the Jamaican Olympian at the 40m mark had they started off together!
What's more, the footballer revealed in an interview with Daily Mail that he challenged the Jamaican for a race, "I’ve been waiting for that phone call from Jamaica. I challenged him a while ago and he said maybe after Rio. So I’m just waiting now, need to push him."