Could Bentley beat Bolt in a race?

Cor, he’s fast!  Usain Bolt again stretched the limits of what’s possible with his record-breaking performance in the 100 meters on Sunday.  It got us wondering here at FootyFactor HQ how well the fastest footballers would rate against the Jamaican sprinter and self-professed Man United fan.

Nike came close to providing an answer last year as part of a marketing campaign for one of its new boots.  They measured the speeds of some of the fastest players in the Premiership sprinting to the ball and then running with the ball. (See the results here: Nike) What’s interesting is that the quickest players, like Andy Johnson and Fernando Torres, are actually faster with the ball than without!

Another study, completed earlier this year by Opta Sportsdata, argued that David Bentley is in fact the league’s fastest, with Theo Walcott and Ashley Young not far behind.

For the record, John Terry appeared on neither list.

We’ll let the debate continue.  But what is consistent among the studies is that the very fastest footballers tend to reach speeds of 21mph.  That means they’d run the 100 meters in about 10.65 seconds.  Not too shabby, but a full second off of Bolt’s record-breaking time (which translates into an eternity in the world of athletics.)

Bolt - Much quicker than a Bentley