16 December 2023 , 08:00
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Aaron Lennon claims that he could have been a sprinter for Great Britain had he decided to pursue a different career path when he was young.
Lennon made 416 appearances in the Premier League for Leeds, Tottenham, Everton and Burnley before retiring in 2022. The 36-year-old was renowned for his pace on the wing and was once considered to be one of the most exciting players in the top flight.
He and fellow speedster Theo Walcott were included in Sven Goran Erikkson’s England squad for the 2006 World Cup due largely to their pace. Lennon was just 19 years old but had earned the tag of ‘wonderkid’ due to his rare attributes.
Lennon went on to win 21 caps for his country and record 36 goals and 50 assists in the Premier League, playing as a conventional right winger. Pace was undoubtedly his stand-out characteristic and back in 2018, he was ranked as the third fastest player in the Premier League, behind Kyle Walker and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, having hit a top speed of 34.8km/h in a game against Southampton.
Lennon’s speed didn’t just stand out on the football pitch – and it meant he could have gone down a different direction. Asked how fast he could run 100 metres, Lennon told talkSPORT : “I’ve never done it. My school didn’t do that, we just used to race each other around the block or around the street and in school it would be to the wall and back, but we never did 100m.
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“I did one race and I think it was for the fastest in Yorkshire. I remember all of these other competitors were turning up with their blocks and I was just ready to race with my trainers ready to go, but I won it easily!
“The schools put it on and said to nominate the fastest people in the class at this age group. The first part was 30m, so that was timed and then the top eight went into a 100m race that wasn’t timed, but I won it comfortably.
Aaron Lennon was renowned for his pace (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Who is the fastest player who've ever seen? Comment below.
“I had a coach saying, ‘do you want to run for west Yorkshire?’ and ‘do you want to run for Great Britain?’ or whatever it was at the time, and I was like ‘I want to play football, it’s not for me’.”
Lennon’s speed is not disputed, but making the crossover from football to sprinting is not easy. Cristiano Ronaldo was lightning-quick in his pomp, but he was still some way off being good enough to make it as a sprinter.
In 2011 Ronaldo was put through a Sky Sports series called 'Tested to the Limit’. The 26-year-old Real Madrid forward was pitted against Angel David Rodriguez, who was then the fastest sprinter in Spain.
Rodriguez ran 25m in 3.31 seconds, while Ronaldo could only manage 3.61 seconds over the same distance. The Spanish sprinter said: "I took three tenths from him [Ronaldo], which is quite a lot. If it was 100 metres, he may be able to get 11.60 [seconds]."