Football has evolved a lot over the last few years, with the game seemingly becoming more technical than ever before. Players with brute strength are no longer commonplace, but rather a priceless commodity these days.
That means there are more players famed for their speed at the top level of the game. But who is the fastest player out there? Unfortunately, data collection for this is not exactly widespread, but we have scoured databases and websites from a variety of locations to discover who has recorded the fastest speeds this calendar year.
For this list, we’ve looked at the top 15 players in football. Leagues such as the English Premier League and German Bundesliga have this data easily accessible, so it may be skewed in their players’ favour for the moment. However, with a bit of digging, we have still determined a top 15 featuring players from across Europe and beyond.
All stats correct as of 15th October 2024.
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Rank
Player
Club
Top Speed
Karim Adeyemi
Borussia Dortmund
37.6 km/h
Micky van de Ven
Tottenham
37.38 km/h
Nuno Mendes
PSG
37.2 km/h
Anthony Elanga
Nottingham Forest
36.91 km/h
Jakub Moder
Brighton
36.84 km/h
Sirlord Conteh
Heidenheim
36.67 km/h
Carlos Forbs
Wolves
36.6 km/h
Nathan Ngoumou
Borussia Monchengladbach
36.53 km/h
Achraf Hakimi
PSG
36.5 km/h
Kylian Mbappe
Real Madrid
36.5 km/h
Moussa Diaby
Al-Ittihad
36.42 km/h
Alphonso Davies
Bayern Munich
36.41 km/h
Ansgar Knauff
Eintracht Frankfurt
36.38 km/h
Erling Haaland
Man City
36.32 km/h
Harry Wilson
Fulham
36.23 km/h
15 Harry Wilson (Fulham) Top speed: 36.23 km/h
Harry Wilson was Fulham’s fastest player in the 2023/24 Premier League campaign, posting a top speed of 36.23 km/h during their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United in April.
This wasn’t enough to rank among the highest speeds reached in the league last season, but given only a handful across some of Europe’s top leagues managed to reach 36 km/h, it’s still mightily impressive.
14 Erling Haaland (Manchester City) Top speed: 36.32 km/h
Finding out Erling Haaland was Manchester City’s fastest player is no real surprise, more perhaps that quite a few are capable of topping the Norwegian’s electric speed.
He recorded a top speed of 36.32 km/h last season during a 5-1 drubbing of Wolves where Haaland scored four – including two from the penalty spot.
Rank
Player
Club
Top speed
Micky van de Ven
Tottenham
37.38 km/h
Anthony Elanga
Nottingham Forest
36.91 km/h
Jakub Moder
Brighton
36.84 km/h
Carlos Forbs
Wolves
36.6 km/h
Moussa Diaby
Aston Villa
36.42 km/h
Erling Haaland
Man City
36.32 km/h
Harry Wilson
Fulham
36.23 km/h
Frank Onyeka
Brentford
36.13 km/h
Mykhailo Mudryk
Chelsea
35.73 km/h
Timo Werner
Tottenham
35.7 km/h
13 Ansgar Knauff (Eintracht Frankfurt) Top speed: 36.38 km/h
Frankfurt winger Ansgar Knauff became one of the fastest players in Bundesliga history when he posted a lung-busting speed of 36.38 km/h towards the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
Knauff placed third overall last season in the German top flight, with the former Borussia Dortmund youngster now strutting his stuff for Dino Toppmoller’s impressive outfit.
12 Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) Top speed: 36.41 km/h
One of only two players to run faster than Knauff in Germany last season was Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies.
His 36.41 km/h run in May was the joint-fastest in the Bundesliga last term. Only Heidenheim’s Eren Dinkci could keep up with Davies, though his effort came before the turn of the year.
Interestingly, Davies has previously run faster – he clocked 36.51 km/h back in 2020 during a game where Bayern secured the title.
11 Moussa Diaby (Al-Ittihad) Top speed: 36.42 km/h
Moussa Diaby may well be one of the quickest players currently in the Saudi Pro League, having made a summer switch to Al-Ittihad just a year after joining Aston Villa.
He made his mark in his one full Premier League season by running defences ragged with genuinely frightening pace – his 36.42 km/h clocked up against West Ham back in March has only been topped by two top-flight players in the current PL campaign.
10 Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid) Top speed: 36.5 km/h
Kylian Mbappe was almost always going to feature at some point – even if reliable Ligue 1 data is hard to come by when it comes to top speeds.
Luckily, the Real Madrid star showcased his quick-footedness during the summer’s European Championship, where he was the fastest player at the tournament.
His 36.5 km/h was comfortably higher than his closest competitor, Ferran Torres of Spain.
Rank
Player
Nation
Top speed
Kylian Mbappe
France
36.5 km/h
Ferran Torres
Spain
36 km/h
Benjamin Sesko
Slovenia
35.9 km/h
Nico Williams
Spain
35.8 km/h
Leroy Sane
Germany
35.8 km/h
Valentin Mihaila
Romania
35.8 km/h
Theo Hernandez
France
35.7 km/h
Dan Ndoye
Switzerland
35.6 km/h
Micky van de Ven
Netherlands
35.6 km/h
Rasmus Hojlund
Denmark
35.5 km/h
9 Achraf Hakimi (PSG) Top speed: 36.5 km/h
Paris Saint-Germain may have bid farewell to Mbappe in the summer, but they still have some serious speed demons at the Parc des Princes.
Achraf Hakimi has recorded the fastest speed so far in this season’s Champions League, and only two players were able to better his run of 36.5 km/h in the entirety of last year’s competition.
Rank
Player
Club
Top speed
1
Achraf Hakimi
PSG
36.5 km/h
2=
Lois Openda
RB Leipzig
35.5 km/h
2=
Josha Vagnoman
Stuttgart
35.5 km/h
4=
Jeremie Frimpong
Leverkusen
35.4 km/h
4=
Nuno Mendes
PSG
35.4 km/h
6
Vinicius Junior
Real Madrid
35.3 km/h
7=
Federico Valverde
Real Madrid
35.2 km/h
7=
Wilfried Singo
Monaco
35.2 km/h
10=
Karim Adeyemi
Borussia Dortmund
35.1 km/h
10=
Mahdi Camara
Stade Brest
35.1 km/h
10=
Carlos Augusto
Inter
35.1 km/h
10=
Adam Daghim
RB Salzburg
35.1 km/h
8 Nathan Ngoumou (Borussia Monchengladbach) Top speed: 36.53 km/h
Nathan Ngoumou’s lightning run earlier this season was the fifth-fastest in Bundesliga history, edging out the likes of Davies, Diaby and Hakimi from their respective stints in Germany.
The Frenchman has the second-fastest run in the Bundesliga this term at the time of writing, and given who he’s up against, that’s some considerable running power.
7 Carlos Forbs (Wolves) Top speed: 36.6 km/h
At Molineux for this season on loan from Ajax, Portuguese winger Carlos Forbs has literally hit the ground running at Wolves.
According to the Premier League, his 36.6 km/h run from earlier this season is the second-fastest since the start of the campaign.
6 Sirlord Conteh (Heidenheim) Top speed: 36.67 km/h
Sirlord Conteh has had a rapid rise not too dissimilar to his own team. Just two years ago, Conteh was playing third-tier football for Magdeburg, and has recently featured in the Conference League for Heidenheim.
He also began the campaign by recording the fastest-ever speed by a Bundesliga player – 36.67 km/h – during a 4-0 win over Augsburg, pipping Karim Adeyemi’s record by 0.02 km/h.
Rank
Player
Club
Top speed
1
Sirlord Conteh
Heidenheim
36.67 km/h
2
Nathan Ngoumou
Borussia Monchengladbach
36.53 km/h
3
Karim Adeyemi
Borussia Dortmund
36.18 km/h
4
Derrick Kohn
Werder Bremen
35.81 km/h
5
Jeremie Frimpong
Bayer Leverkusen
35.74 km/h
6
Tim Skarke
Union Berlin
35.56 km/h
7
Hugo Ekitike
Eintracht Frankfurt
35.53 km/h
8
Jean-Matteo Bahoya
Eintracht Frankfurt
35.51 km/h
9
Eren Dinkci
Freiburg
35.44 km/h
10
Alphonso Davies
Bayern Munich
35.41 km/h