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Fastest Football Player | Who Is The Fastest Footballer In The World?

Kylian Mbappe, Timo Werner and Alphonso Davies feature among the fastest footballers in the world
Davies is one of three Bayern Munich stars in this fastest football player list
How important is speed in the modern game?

The fastest football players in the world are always a football betting factor.

While pace isn’t a necessity for elite footballers, it can change matches. Being able to run in behind or recover in defence is invaluable.

The quickest footballers in the world are not necessarily in the Golden Boot running – some are creators, and many operate from full-back or wing-back roles.

Here are 10 of the fastest football players on the planet, led off by Paris Saint-Germain superstar and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe.

Kylian Mbappe

A sports betting favourite to win the Ballon d’Or, Kylian Mbappe is an unstoppable force. Since signing for PSG, Mbappe has scored 104 goals in 145 matches. His 16 goals in 39 appearances for France is almost as impressive.

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While his pace petrifies defenders and makes managers rethink their tactics, Mbappe has grown as an all-round footballer. He’s clinical in front of goal and his close control is sublime.

Players as mind-bendingly fast as Mbappe can sometimes see their speed overshadow their talent – the World Cup winner is arguably the most valuable footballer in the world.

Kyle Walker

His future with England might be uncertain, and Joao Cancelo has displaced him at Manchester City, but Kyle Walker is still one of the quickest players around.

Walker turns 31 in May. He isn’t as effective going forward as Trent Alexander-Arnold or as solid defensively as Aaron Wan-Bissaka, though his importance on one of the world’s strongest teams cannot be overstated.

Walker has stuck at City through some periods of defensive chaos – his pace has been invaluable to save City from countless counters.

Inaki Williams

Signed to Athletic Bilbao’s youth setup at 18, Inaki Williams has flourished at the Basque club. Interest from the Premier League’s biggest clubs never resulted in a move – Williams has made over 250 appearances for Athletic’s first team.

A favourite of FIFA Ultimate Team players, Williams is equally comfortable on the right or down the middle.

Standing at over 6’0 tall, he’s got the upper body strength to play with his back to goal, though his extreme pace means he’s at his most effective with space to run in behind.

Adama Traore

Adama Traore was seldom considered one of the best young footballers during his time at Barcelona. Spells with Middlesbrough and Aston Villa followed for Traore, who has finally settled at Wolves and carved out a role in Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad.

Sometimes deployed as a right wing-back, sometimes up front, sometimes on the right of a front three, Adama is a must-watch talent. He fearlessly dribbles at opponents. Defenders are known to just bounce off him.

Unique as an athlete and a player, interest from other clubs has been inevitable – will a Champions League club pay big bucks for Traore?

Leroy Sane

Not many players have chosen to leave Manchester City in the Pep Guardiola era. Leroy Sane is the exception – the German international returned home to sign with Bayern Munich, adding to the European champions’ embarrassment of attacking riches.

Sane started his career at Schalke before earning his big move to Manchester. He flourished, and his wing partnership with Raheem Sterling became a fearsome prospect for any defence.

The pace is a big part of his game, but Sane also possesses immense strength to hold off defenders and would-be tacklers.

Sadio Mane

Liverpool were destined to have an entrant on this list. Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah could stake a claim as the fastest player on their team – both have humiliated many a defence with their quick acceleration.

Mane uses his pace effectively in and out of possession. He frequently robs opponents, appearing at their feet quicker than they expected. He wins loose balls, and makes perfectly timed runs in behind the defence.

It’s not been his best start to the season, but Mane is still in the top five wingers in the world.

Timo Werner

It hasn’t been the start Timo Werner will have hoped for when he agreed to sign for Chelsea.

The German international was an analytics darling during his final season with RB Leipzig – the strong underlying numbers have not resulted in an impressive return during his early months with the Blues.

Werner might not be the most clinical, but there are few defenders who can keep up with him. Premier League centre-backs have no chance when Chelsea are on the break.

Alphonso Davies

Starring for the most successful football club in Germany, Alphonso Davies’ story is a fascinating one. Davies arrived as a raw left winger, but he has quickly ascended to become one of the best left-sided defenders around.

Playing on a Bayern team as stacked with talent as any squad in recent memory, Davies is a key component. His speed stretches defences and the quality of his delivery from left-back is as good as anyone’s.

Achraf Hakimi

A versatile full-back who can play on the left or right, Achraf Hakimi is one of the fastest footballers on the planet.

His pace, like Alphonso Davies, makes him an immense threat on the overlap and allows him to recover even against mobile wingers.

Hakimi signed with Inter in the offseason after an impressive loan stint with Borussia Dortmund. At 22 years of age, the Moroccan has several seasons of elite production to come. He’s already proven to be a masterful signing for Antonio Conte’s side.

Douglas Costa

Despite celebrating his 30th birthday last year, Douglas Costa is still electric. The Brazilian fell out of favour at Juventus and has returned to Bayern Munich on loan where he has joined an immense group of talent on the wings.

Costa’s career has been split between the two superclubs since leaving Shakhtar Donetsk back in 2015. He has collected five league titles across Munich and Turin, often dazzling with his quick footwork and blistering pace.

Never the star of his team, his impact has often been undervalued despite his eye-catching pace off the left wing.

*Credit for the main photo belongs to David Vincent / AP Photo*

August 2, 2022

Football

By Sam Cox

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Sam is a sports tipster, specialising in the Premier League and Champions League.

He covers most sports, including cricket and Formula One. Sam particularly enjoys those on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean – notably MLB and NBA.

Watching, writing and talking about sports betting takes up most of his time, whether that is for a day out at T20 Finals Day or a long night of basketball.

Having been writing for several years, Sam has been working with 888Sport since 2016, contributing multiple articles per week to the blog.

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Fabrizio Romano On How Dusan Vlahovic's 'Secret' Move To Juventus Went Down

The Dusan Vlahovic deal was the most secret of the entire January transfer window. A complicated, strategic negotiation, full of issues for many clubs and which has become a brilliant solution for Juventus.

But this story Dusan Vlahovic starts from afar: his contract with Fiorentina was expiring in June 2023, the club begins talks to sign a longer agreement but the green light does not arrive from the player during last summer.

That's why Fiorentina listen to the proposals of the other clubs: Tottenham are interested but the best offer is from Atletico Madrid, putting on the table an official bid for € 50 million guaranteed plus € 10 million add-ons and a percentage on the future resale of the Serbian striker.

Dusan doesn't even want to listen, he doesn't answer and doesn't accept; so Fiorentina do not even begin to negotiate between clubs.

Last September, Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso tried to change the situation: the club offered Dusan Vlahovic a five-year contract worth over € 5 million net per season.

It would officially be the best contract in Fiorentina's history, even better so than legends like Gabriel Batistuta, Rui Costa or Roberto Baggio had: no one has earned as much as Vlahovic would earn with this potential deal.

But Dusan and his agents refuse, they have no intention of talking about it. When in November it appears that a deal is close for € 5 million a year and € 2 million to the agents, the demand suddenly rises to € 8 million to the player and € 6 million to the agents.

In addition, a 10% future resale has been asked too by the agents. Fiorentina refuse, the break is total and since the beginning of December, Arsenal begin to try with great ambition a negotiation to buy Vlahovic in January: the club's board has an excellent relationship with Fiorentina, the deal for Lucas Torreira in the summer has built a strong very good dialogue between the two clubs.

The problem for Arsenal is always the same: Dusan Vlahovic's agents do not even answer the calls and proposals from the Gunners, just as happened in the past with other clubs.

There is no intention of negotiating, a silence on the Vlahovic side that will also last during the first weeks of January: Arsenal promise Fiorentina €65 million more add-ons to have Dusan immediately, the two clubs practically agree verbally but they have to wait for the player and his decisions.

Zero answers, until the Gunners pull back from the negotiation as they did for Manuel Locatelli in the summer: you cannot chase a player forever, Vlahovic and his silence nullify the hopes of Arsenal and also a potential attempt by other clubs such as Tottenham, more oriented on the summer than on a transfer for January.

Fiorentina managers are starting to get very nervous because there is the fear of losing Dusan as a free agent next January 2023, it would be a disaster for the club's balance.

And it was precisely in this "fear" that Juventus entered the race: for months Juventus had already obtained information on Vlahovic and the costs of a potential negotiation.

But when the Serbian striker finally turned down Arsenal and other solutions in the Premier League, Juventus contacted Fiorentina for an official offer that the board had been preparing in great secrecy since the beginning of January.

This is why it was a much faster deal than expected: Juventus received guarantees on the probable sale of Dejan Kulusevski, so president Andrea Agnelli gave the green light to an initial offer of € 65 million.

The negotiation is rapid, because Fiorentina asks for € 80 million and Juventus conclude the agreement for € 75 million guaranteed plus € 5 million in add ons. In one night, Juventus and Fiorentina reach a full agreement for Dusan.

And there is a man behind this deal: Massimiliano Allegri, Juventus manager, had been insisting for weeks on making an attempt for Vlahovic.

He sees Vlahovic as the forward of the present and the future, a statement of return to the top level for the club. That's why Juventus wasted no time.

The direct negotiation with Vlahovic is not complicated for the Bianconeri: while Dusan did not intend to speak to Arsenal or other clubs, the Serbian striker and his agents give immediate availability to Juventus.

Those who are very close to Vlahovic say that ever since he started playing football as a child, he dreamed of Juve as the ideal club for such an important step.

For this he immediately accepted a contract of € 7 million net per season for five years, until 2026. The negotiation continued for 24 hours on the commissions to the agents who will receive € 10.6 million as part of the deal.

The signing of the contract completed an operation that for Juventus was like a spy story: the hope in the rejection of the Premier League, then jumping in the race with an offer at the right time. This is the crazy story of Vlahovic, the new Juventus star.

*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*

FIRST PUBLISHED: 23rd February 2022

February 23, 2022

Fabrizio

By Fabrizio Romano

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Fabrizio Romano is an Italian sports journalist. He was born in 1993, he lives in Milan and has over 30 million followers in total on the major social networks.

He collaborates with 888sport, CBS Sports, Sky Sport, The Guardian and has been a transfer market expert since 2011. He will take care of a column dedicated to some "Behind the Scenes" of transfers.

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The 10 Biggest Flops In Premier League History

Chelsea are responsible for the two worst ever Premier League signings
Record buys can quickly turn into the biggest flops
One dud faked his own kidnapping while the rest simply missed the target

They came, they saw, they very much failed to conquer.

Across the Premier League’s lengthy existence, we have cringed in embarrassment at a multitude of flops and failures, as they tried in vain to reach mediocrity, often saddled with expensive fees.

These are the worst. Or should that be the best? No, definitely the worst.

10) Savio - Brescia to West Ham

The Ugandan-born Savio Nsereko was barely pulling up trees at Serie B side Brescia when West Ham came calling in 2009 offering an eye-watering sum of £9m.

The transfer later led to an internal investigation but by then a player who was equally average up front or on the wing had been sold off to Fiorentina for a huge loss.

In 14 years, for 16 different clubs, the ineffective attacker managed to score a mere 25 times, none of which were for the Hammers.

He is today better known for reportedly faking his own kidnapping in 2012, as he attempted to inveigle £25,000 from his family. A grand for every one of his career goals.

9) Steve Marlet - Lyon to Fulham

One of the shrewdest UK football bets around at present is to back high-flying Fulham to repeat their feat of 2001 and gain promotion from the second tier as champions.

Should they do so, let’s hope some harsh lessons have been recalled from that time, when the Cottagers, heavily funded by Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, embarked on a spending splurge to immediately establish themselves among the elite.

Goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sarr was purchased, who was a terrific coup. Then came the record signing of Marlet, who sadly proved disastrous.

The French forward was the flavour of the month that summer, having fired five goals in the Champions League and struck up a fearsome partnership with Sonny Anderson at Lyon.

In his first season, the £11.5m washout was out-scored by Barry Hayles and it only went downhill from there.

8) Alexis Sanchez - Arsenal to Manchester United

Swap deals are a rarity these days and that perhaps is unsurprising when we think back to the start of 2018, when Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez headed to Old Trafford and United flop Henrikh Mkhitaryan passed him on the M1, going the other way.

The latter greatly disappointed at the Emirates, quickly becoming a peripheral figure. As for Sanchez, his electrifying bursts and individual magic seemingly disappeared overnight, as a series of anonymous displays had the Stretford End worried.

Just five goals in 45 outings was the Chilean’s final contribution and all for a princely £391,000 a week, plus a substantial bonus package.

7) Eliaquim Mangala - Porto to Manchester City

The burly centre-back enjoyed an outstanding debut for the Blues against Chelsea in 2014, bullying Diego Costa into submission throughout.

It was an impeccable performance, one that had supporters believing their club had bought extremely well that summer, if for a lofty fee of £32m.

Unfortunately, Mangala’s introduction was to be the biggest false dawn since passengers of the Titanic awoke on day four to delight in the chilly landscape.

Mangala is one of a handful of failed footballers widely infamous for their ineptitude. He was atrociously bad at the aspects of the game he was purchased for. He was worse at everything else.

6) Danny Drinkwater - Leicester City to Chelsea

Google informs us that Drinkwater is presently plying his trade on loan at Reading. Try to delve any further and you’re soon taken to sites espousing the health benefits to consuming more H20.

The mere fact that a search engine is required to locate a player who was so recently a title winner and England international says everything about the dramatic decline of this midfielder’s once flourishing career.

In 2006, he was a pivotal figure in Leicester’s league-winning fairytale. He would have been a regular fixture in our EPL tips, admired for his ability to pop up with a crucial goal in addition to protecting the Foxes’ back-line.

Now, courtesy of one horribly misguided transfer he has become the invisible man.

5) Juan Sebastian Veron - Lazio to Manchester United

“You’re all idiots.” That was Sir Alex Ferguson’s response – minus an expletive or two – to journalists critical of his struggling Argentine midfielder Veron.

At the time, the general consensus among the press pack being that a player twice voted South American Player of the Year was proving to be an expensive dud at Old Trafford.

In hindsight, we can deem his overall displays for the Reds to be satisfactory but considering the player’s enormous talent, was that in itself satisfactory? It was not.

Great things were expected of Veron when he arrived via Rome. Instead, he produced the same levels as Quinton Fortune.

4) Francis Jeffers - Everton to Arsenal

The Liverpool-born hitman cost half of what Fulham paid for Steve Marlet that same summer, but context adds a hefty surcharge.

Arsene Wenger’s Gunners had finished runner-up for three seasons in a row at the turn of this century and after some studied analysis the owlish professor determined what his team lacked was a proven finisher.

The beautiful, passing football they had covered. What they needed was an end-product.

Jeffers was a logical target after accruing a strike-rate at Goodison just shy of one in two and eight million pounds later, Wenger had his ‘fox in the box’.

Alas, Jeffers made only 26 appearances for Arsenal, scoring just four times. In his final outing he was sent off which perfectly summed up his dismal spell in North London.

3) Andy Carroll - Newcastle to Liverpool

Cash-rich from selling Fernando Torres to Chelsea, the Merseysiders contrived to sign one of their greatest modern players and their biggest flop in living memory all in the same summer. That’s actually impressive.

While Luis Suarez hit the ground running, scoring for fun, Carroll was burdened by the British transfer record required to prise him from the North-East.

Amidst a lightning-quick forward-line he appeared out-of-sorts even on the occasions he was passed fit to play and just six goals in 44 is a sorry summation of his woes.

Our Premier League Odds pitch Liverpool as second favourites to lift the title and that’s largely down to their striking options that put the fear of whatever deity you believe in into opponents.

Carroll by comparison was like a blindfolded bouncer. He didn’t scare anyone.

2) Fernando Torres - Liverpool to Chelsea

The Spanish striker was a phenomenon at Anfield, becoming the fastest ever Liverpool player to reach fifty goals, banging in 33 of them in an astonishing debut season.

He was rapid, lethal, and made the spectacular look routine. In short, he was exactly the kind of forward our Fantasy Premier League tips suggest is purchased at any cost. Because when he played he scored, or assisted, or scored and assisted.

The Spanish striker at Chelsea, following his colossal £50m transfer, was none of the above. Seemingly overnight he became Clark Kent without a phone-box to be seen.

He stuttered and tripped himself up and appeared to be frightened of his own shadow. A revision of his time in the capital has some now insisting that he wasn’t that bad after all. He was.

1) Andriy Shevchenko - AC Milan to Chelsea

What is it about deadly, renowned hitmen heading to Stamford Bridge and having their superpowers taken from them? Romelu Lukaku beware.

In 2006 the Ukrainian Ballon d’Or winner signed for league champions Chelsea and the rest of the Premier League gave up all realistic hope of toppling Jose Mourinho’s lean, mean, relentless machine anytime soon.

That’s because Shevchenko was as good as it got, a ruthless, goalscoring marvel who converted on a regular basis from any angle or distance, usually in an efficient manner that cooled the blood.

At AC Milan this clinical technician had blasted home 127 goals of every variety so what chance did Wigan, Charlton and Reading rearguards have against the footballing equivalent of Ivan Drago?

In the event, they coped quite well. Across three disappointing campaigns this generational striker scored just nine top-flight goals.

*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*

FIRST PUBLISHED: 28th January 2022

February 4, 2022

Premier League

By Stephen Tudor

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Stephen Tudor is a freelance football writer and sports enthusiast who only knows slightly less about the beautiful game than you do.

A contributor to FourFourTwo and Forbes, he is a Manchester City fan who was taken to Maine Road as a child because his grandad predicted they would one day be good.

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Fastest Footballers In The World (2022):

Kylian Mbappe

Kyle Walker

Inaki Williams

Adama Traore

Leroy Sane

Sadio Mane

Timo Werner

Alphonso Davies

Achraf Hakimi

Douglas Costa

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Cheltenham Festival Run That Season:

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10) Savio - Brescia to West Ham

9) Steve Marlet - Lyon to Fulham

8) Alexis Sanchez - Arsenal to Manchester United

7) Eliaquim Mangala - Porto to Manchester City

6) Danny Drinkwater - Leicester City to Chelsea

5) Juan Sebastian Veron - Lazio to Manchester United

4) Francis Jeffers - Everton to Arsenal

3) Andy Carroll - Newcastle to Liverpool

2) Fernando Torres - Liverpool to Chelsea

1) Andriy Shevchenko - AC Milan to Chelsea

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