It’s always interesting to take a look at the plethora of statistics available in modern sport, and some of those from the English Premier League (EPL) are especially enlightening.
As a runner myself, I’ve always wondered about the extreme fitness levels of the modern soccer player and how that would translate to running.
It may come as something of a surprise, or not, to see that the top soccer players in the EPL cover well over 10km in a typical match if they play the full 90 minutes.
In fact, during the 2023/2024 season each of the top 10 players for most distance covered in a single match notched up over 13km (as per image below).
If you had to work that out at pace per km, it would translate to a quite pedestrian of 6:55km. However, it can’t be worked out like that because playing a game of football consists of a series of sprints, walking, standing on the spot and jogging.
Any runner would tell you, that doing a series of sprints will tire the body out much, much, more quickly than jogging without stopping for the same period.
With this data in mind, I would be also willing to wager a bet than any current fit Premier League player would be able to run well under four minutes per km for at least 5km, and likely 10km.
For the average road runner, that kind of pace would seem obscene.
Then again, that’s why the typical player in the Premier League earns per month what the average person earns in a lifetime.