Darwin Nunez clocks rapid top speed to become Premier League's fastest ever player
The Uruguayan recorded the quickest sprint ever in the English top flight against West Ham
Darwin Nunez has been recorded as the fastest player in Premier League history, after the Uruguayan sprinted at a top speed of 23.61mph against West Ham on Wednesday night.
Previously, Manchester City's Kyle Walker held the record as the fastest-ever Premier League player, achieved in June 2020 when he reached a ridiculous 23.48mph.
However, Nunez has now surpassed Walker, and all in the same night he scored the winner in the 22nd minute in a 1-0 win against West Ham at Anfield. This shouldn't come as a surprise, though.
While playing for Benfica last season, Nunez reached 22.68mph in the Champions League to clock the second-highest speed ever in the competition. PSG's Kylian Mbappe currently holds the record with a sprint of 22.8mph.
For context, Usain Bolt's average speed during his 100m world record time of 9.58 seconds, set in 2009, was 23.35mph. Therefore, if Nunez managed to maintain that pace throughout a full 100m, he would set a new world record - although Bolt's speed doesn't take into the account the fact he began from a static start.
Regardless, it is still rapid.
And Jurgen Klopp seemed encouraged with the forward's match-winning performance, too.
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"His goal is important. He has scored now a couple of times in the last few games. He arrived 100 per cent, now even with numbers, which is fine," Klopp said after the game.
"He felt a little bit the muscles at half-time but it was all fine and after five minutes I was just a bit concerned about long sprints for him and balls where he stretches his legs. I thought 'come on, we cannot take that risk' and that's why we changed. I think we caught it at the right moment."
His third Premier League goal of the season, expect to see Nunez terrorise defences for the remainder of this campaign. Indeed, he is still settling into the Liverpool side, but, alongside Mo Salah, that is one frighteningly fast forward line.
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Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.