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How good of an athlete is a professional soccer player compared to other professional sports ? In my comparison I will use my top soccer player Messi vs basketballs top player Lebron James.

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I think that is a hard question to answer. The most fair way would probably be to run the two through a myriad of tests and see who came out on top.

Ideas for tests would be individual tests such as 40, vertical, bench press, etc. The ability to do many of these well, however, does not automatically convert to prowess in a particular sport.

Other ideas would be to have them perform different sports tests, such as kicking field goals, throwing a football, pitching a baseball, playing 18 holes of golf, etc.

I think it would be hard to deny that a top level professional soccer player is incredibly athletic, such as Messi who is fast, agile, and obviously has tremendous coordination and control of a ball. LeBron James would be strong, powerful, have great jumping ability, and obviously a clinical shooter of a basketball. Interesting thought though either way.

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Soccer is the 10th most difficult sport to play out of 60...according to some number crunchers. Here is the article with the table

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sportSkills

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One look at that poll tells me how reasonable it is in my opinion. If Prince Fielder and Tony Gwynn can play baseball, no chance should baseball be ranked above soccer. Running 90 whole feet in a row! How tough!

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Ever stand in the box and swing at a 90 MPH fast ball? Oh yea the last one was coming right at your head but this one is right down the middle, till it drops like a rock the last 3 feet!

Break down the individual scores, soccer got one of the highest endurance scores, but it is not just about speed and endurance! Soccer did get the highest in agility!

CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY PUT AUTO RACING AT 32!!!!! wait till NASCAR see this! Tony Stewart is so much a better athlete than Henry!

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Think John Kruk said it best.

"I ain't an athlete, lady, I'm a baseball player."


"We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing."
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Quote:



CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY PUT AUTO RACING AT 32!!!!! wait till NASCAR see this! Tony Stewart is so much a better athlete than Henry!




Achmed not usually watch NASCAR, but happen to be flipping channels. They talk'n bout one driver that had ACL surgery two weeks ago and was driving that day.
Hmmmm....when was the last time you heard soccer player back on field in two weeks????


"Silence, I kill you!" - Achmed the Dead Terrorist
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Since ESPN 2 obviously thinks Poker is a sport - where does it rank?

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Quote:

Quote:



CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY PUT AUTO RACING AT 32!!!!! wait till NASCAR see this! Tony Stewart is so much a better athlete than Henry!




Achmed not usually watch NASCAR, but happen to be flipping channels. They talk'n bout one driver that had ACL surgery two weeks ago and was driving that day.
Hmmmm....when was the last time you heard soccer player back on field in two weeks????




The interesting thing about that is the fact that NASCAR will not allow any drivers to be under the influence of any medications while driving. This driver, can't remember his name right off the bat, had to drive without painkillers in his system. Think of all the braking, shifting, etc. Must have been tough.

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I once heard of a college whose trainers had a bet on which was the fittest athlete. Trainer one chose tennis and trainer 2 chose basketball. They run a series of tests (do not know what they were) and to their surprise soccer was the top.

Now I do not know how they got the numbers but if you include hand to eye coordination then they should have included foot to eye coordination

As far as I am concerned Hockey for sure is the most demanding, there is no way baseball comes in the top 10 and certainly not ahead of soccer. Considering the need for extra "help" in the power department, I am not so sure of that ranking

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