Super Eagles and Galatasaray forward, Victor Osimhenn has been listed as the 11th fastest centre forward currently competing in the UEFA Champions League by the CIES Football Observatory speed rankings.
Osimhen, the report stated, clocked a blistering 33.45 km/h which it described as “Impressive and Elite”. But sitting four places above him at number seven, with a top speed of 33.92 km/h, is Luis Suarez.
The Colombian forward, currently lighting up Sporting Lisbon’s attack, younger, faster, and for now, just slightly quicker than Osimhen.
Osimhen’s inclusion in this list should surprise nobody. The 27-year-old has built his entire game around the kind of physical profile that makes defenders lose sleep.
Explosive acceleration, relentless pressing, and the ability to turn a half-chance into a catastrophe for any backline unfortunate enough to face him.
The CIES data, which uses exclusive Gradient tracking to measure maximum running speeds across Champions League matches, places Osimhen firmly among the elite.
Kylian Mbappe leads all centre forwards with a top speed of 35.67 km/h, followed by Lois Openda at 35.16 km/h and Hugo Ekitike at 34.91 km/h. These are numbers that belong to a different conversation about human speed limits.
At 33.45 km/h, Osimhen is not far behind. And raw pace, as the data also reveals, is only part of his story.
Beyond the sprint numbers, CIES also tracked how players distribute their movement across different speed thresholds and what they found about Osimhen tells you everything about why he is so difficult to contain.
The Nigerian ranked second in the entire Champions League for distance covered at speeds below 7 km/h, essentially walking or slow jogging, accounting for 41.9% of his total movement during matches.
At first glance, that sounds like a criticism. It is the opposite. Mbappe leads this category at 43.5%. The Colombian Suarez sits at 40.1%.
