Quicker than Usain Bolt! Is Barcelona signing Karim Adeyemi the fastest footballer ever?

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Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006

Prepare for an explosion of speed at Barcelona this season, with the Spanish champions having signed Karim Adeyemi, a winger who has clocked a faster sprint time than Usain Bolt.

Barca’s move to sign the Borussia Dortmund star has been all-but confirmed by the Blaugrana, with president Joan Laporta going public on the agreement to sign the Germany winger.

Sport reports that a verbal agreement has been made with Borussia Dortmund for the transfer of the 24-year-old, who will move to Catalunya for an initial €22 million, with €7m to potentially follow in add ons. On top of this, Dortmund will retain a 20% sell-on clause for the player, who will sign a five-year contract with the Camp Nou side.

Current ETV

Karim Adeyemi

F (CR), M (R)

Dortmund

Karim Adeyemi

F (CR), M (R)

Dortmund

€44.9M

ETV Range

€40.4M - €49.3M

View full profile

Barcelona have all-but confirmed the deal to sign the Germany winger via president Joan Laporta.

Speaking to the media in Dallas, he said: “We are very excited about Adeyemi. We've liked him for a while. He's dangerous and fast, and Deco handled the signing very well.”

I think I’m the fastest player in football – Adeyemi

One of Adeyemi’s major assets is the blistering speed he possesses. Indeed, over 30 metres, he’s even quicker than sprinting icon Usain Bolt.

Mundo Deportivo reports that over the distance, he has clocked a time of 3.60 seconds. This is compared to the 3.78 seconds in which Bolt covered the distance during his 100-metre world record run.

“I think I'm the fastest player in football. I'm pretty sure of it. There may be players who come close, but none are faster,” he said.

But is he right?

How fast is Karim Adeyemi?

Adeyemi set a Bundesliga record for top speed when he clocked 36.65km/h in the 2022/23 match between Borussia Dortmund and Freiburg.

But Dortmund’s own analysis suggests that he is even faster than that.

“I’ve broken my own record, but very few people know that. It was the Champions League. Mathias Kolodziej (head of sports science at BVB [ed.]) evaluates all the data. He wrote something on a post-it note and put it in my locker. It said ‘37.3’. I asked him about it, and he confirmed that number. 37.28 km/h in the game against Real Madrid,” he told the club’s in-house media in December 2024.

The figure of 37.28km/h, however, does not make him the quickest active footballer recorded.

Remarkably, he may not even be the quickest player at Barcelona. According to the CIES Football Observatory, fellow new signing at Camp Nou Anthony Gordon clocked 37.92km/h during the Champions League with Newcastle last season.

The Englishman, however, did not get near to this figure in league play.

According to the Premier League’s data, this sprint speed would put Adeyemi fourth among players in England’s top flight since the beginning of the 2020/21 season.

Holding the record is Tottenham centre-back Micky van de Ven, who reached a top speed of 37.38km/h against Brentford in January 2024.

Kyle Walker (Manchester City) and Jackson Tchatchoua (Wolves) have also both beaten Adeyemi’s mark, clocking 37.31km/h and 37.30km/h respectively in May 2023 and August 2025 against Everton.

Gordon, meanwhile, recorded a highest sprint speed of 36.68km/h back in September 2023.

Henry claims assessed

Thierry Henry, another former Barcelona player, is often cited as having a reported sprint speed of 39.2km/h while playing with Arsenal in the Premier League, yet this number predates the standardised optical and GPS tracking systems used today so it’s not seen as verified.

Similarly, other rapid players from past years, such as Arjen Robben and Ronaldo are not considered to have been accurately measured in terms of their speed.

Adeyemi is quick… but he’s not the quickest

Adeyemi is certainly right up there in terms of the quickest players in the modern day – and indeed in the history of the game.

He is not, however, the quickest – even if he can cover 30 metres quicker than Usain Bolt.

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