And why do they call it football? Because of all the punting.

Fair enough. In that case I would point to Christiano Ronaldo or Kylian Mbappe who both are right around the 4.36 Charles runs in a 40m. They may be a touch closer to 4.38-4.40 but nonetheless, you get the point.

Are people really arguing as if soccer players, who are generally smaller because they don’t need nearly the same size, are not as fast as football players or that they aren’t in absurdly good cardio shape? Or that they aren’t physical as if there isn’t constant boxing out for position? Yeah the closing speed of a defender going in for a slide tackle when a player is on the break is going to be elite.

NFL players are insanely fit too. It’s not really a competition. They are just fit in different ways for different purposes.

Agreed.

Bruce Lee would kick Messi's ass in less than 30 seconds.

:evil:

I can't speak for anyone else, but I was only referring to Jamaal Charles, who had world class speed, being faster than Messi. That's no slight on Messi, considering there are only a tiny handful of people on Earth who are as fast as Charles was or faster. I doubt any of those people are primarily soccer players.