A 100m race between Kylian Mbappe and Usain Bolt? Fun, but football isn't played in straight lines

Footballers are pretty fast. With 2024 being an Olympic year, the temptation may be even greater to compare them to real sprinters.

Kylian Mbappé may still be there at this summer's games in Paris, but Usain Bolt certainly won't be there. With the postponed 2020 Olympics taking place behind closed doors in Tokyo in 2021, it will be the first Olympics fans will attend since Bolt's retirement.

Bolt has become the de facto benchmark for measuring elite footballers and their sprinting abilities. It is so widespread that Mbappe, one of the fastest footballers in the world at the moment, was asked about the prospect of them competing against each other.

“It would be fun, why not one day when we both have time?” “I don't expect much from the result,” said Mbappe. “He inspired everyone and I think everyone woke up late at night to watch one of Bolt’s races. I can say that it is mutual and that I started admiring him first.”

These words conjure up images of an 11-year-old Mbappé, watching Bolt's 100m world record (9.58 seconds) after going to bed in Berlin in 2009, and watching in awe as Bolt won double gold in the 100m and 200m in London in 2012 won.

Commentators love these comparisons, most recently with Tottenham Hotspur's Micky van de Ven, who set the highest top speed in Premier League history against Brentford. From the halfway line, almost from a standing start, he ate up the pitch to hunt down a through ball and stop Keane Lewis-Potter.

It's fast in terms of pure speed. In fact, the Premier League is becoming increasingly athletic – seven of the top ten fastest speeds since 2020-21 have come this season. But extrapolating that top speed to a full 100m doesn't really work, especially considering that sprinters start from a standing start and in blocks.

This is why Bolt's “average speed” (no one in athletics ever looks at this, for the reason stated above) over his 100m world record is close to Van de Ven's top speed. Bolt achieved a speed of over 44 km/h between 60 and 80 meters in his 100 meter world record, a full 7 km/h faster than Van de Ven.

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Ironically, Bolt (6ft 5in; 196cm) is a better comparison for Van de Ven (6ft 4in) than Mbappe (5ft 10in). Even by sprinter standards, Bolt is large and heavy, which is what made him such an intriguing sprinter and a particularly devastating finisher in relays.

He didn't beat his rivals out of the blocks, typically a few steps behind Justin Gatlin (6ft 1in) in the early stages, because his longer legs couldn't turn as quickly. Bolt took longer to get from his transition phase (acceleration) to the propulsion phase (top speed), but once he was there, he closed the gap and invariably flew past.

Bolt won races from 45m by maximizing his superior stride length and maintaining his speed as competitors tired – no matter how you look at it, he's not getting faster, his opponents are just tiring faster. Mbappe is much more of a Gatlin or the Chinese Su Bingtian, who has the fastest start of all male sprinters.

This all explains why Mbappe and Bolt have had success in their own sports, but wouldn't reach anywhere near that level if they transitioned. Bolt proved that with two pre-season games and an eight-week trial with the Central Coast Mariners in 2018, shortly after retiring from athletics.

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There are a few obvious reasons for this: his age at the time (well into his thirties and with a body worn out from decades of sprinting) and a distinct lack of technical ability. Former Perth Glory striker Andy Keogh said Bolt's first touch was “like a trampoline”.

(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The less obvious – but equally important – reason is that football is less about sprinting and more about speeding up and slowing down.

A 2016 paper by Norwegian researchers pointed out that accelerations in games occur about three to eight times as often as in sprints – game position, game condition and physical fatigue based on the minute in the game are all reasons for such a wide range. For example, other studies have found an average of 10 sprints per game (over 30 km/h) per player, but up to 16 for wingers and five for central midfielders.

Watch clips of Bolt playing – and that's just in the A-League pre-season – and while he stands out for his size and strength, that doesn't really translate because the physical demands are completely different. He had to sprint less than 50 meters (about half the length of a football field) and struggled to slow down quickly to block shots or beat an opponent.

Vicente del Bosque, coach of the Spanish national team that won the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, explained the special nature of Bolt's strengths in the football environment: “For a team that counters hard and moves quickly into open spaces, sure, he would fit . It also depends, because it's not just about covering 100, 60 or 70 meters on the field. It’s about repeating it many times, and that requires perseverance.”

Del Bosque refers to the ability to sprint repeatedly, with football taking place intermittently – a mix of walking, jogging, running and sprinting. Bolt tried to play as a winger, but he lacked the penetration necessary to evade a defender over incredibly short distances, not to mention the technical ability to move quickly with the ball. His timing when attacking crosses was poor and he needed significantly more steps to slow down after a run than a “real” footballer.

(Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

When testing sprinting ability, clubs look at players over 30 meters. At PSV Eindhoven's academy, their benchmark for first-team level is under four seconds, but particularly in the first 10 meters in under 1.9 seconds from a standing start – top speed is important, but the ability to achieve it quickly , counts even more.

Then consider that football involves different types of sprints. Bolt runs in a straight line, apart from the 200m where he has to run a curve (historically one of his strengths). In football, sprints involve changing direction, arcing and zig-zag runs, and then slowing down just a few steps – this could be, for example, to attack a cross, press an opponent without overwhelming him, or move a defender, to create one meter of space.

Take what has become a Mbappé trademark: It's about accelerating quickly and then decelerating to force a defender to stand up. For example, at home against AC Milan in this year's Champions League.

Warren Zaire-Emery releases Mbappe outside Fikayo Tomori.

Tomori tries to defend laterally but has to back away as Mbappe accelerates. Note that he is dribbling with his laces, as this naturally corresponds to the motion of running (compared to using the sole).

Mbappe then steps in and brakes as Tomori tries to turn and block the shot. He ends up right in front of the goal and Mbappe shoots through his legs and into the near post, with the decoy of the typical long post finish bringing goalkeeper Mike Maignan to the spot.

Almost 40 percent of Premier League goals in the 2018-19 season were scored after a delay and/or reversal. That's why England are putting Kyle Walker up against Mbappe in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals – he was able to match Mbappe in terms of top speed, but also had comparable acceleration and deceleration.

When Mbappe tried to quicken the pace past him, Walker was able to take it step by step, but was also able to slow down quickly enough when Mbappe tried to get inside. Walker said his problems in that game arose because he “slowed down too much,” which had nothing to do with his speed at all, but rather knowing how and when to use it.

It may all be a bit of fun, but if anyone thinks that Mbappe could actually compete against an elite sprinter or vice versa, they are sorely mistaken.

(Top photos: Getty Images)