How Far Do Soccer Players Run in a Match? Distance by Position

At the 2022 men’s World Cup, average distances across eight outfield positions ranged from about 6.0 to 7.2 miles (9.7–11.6 km). FIFA’s figures cover players who completed a full match, use a normalized 90+ minute basis and exclude extra time. Individual match totals varied considerably.

How far do soccer players run by position?

The table below uses FIFA’s published positional averages. Keep in mind that total distance includes walking, alongside jogging and faster running. The miles accumulate throughout a player’s time on the field, including movement away from the ball.

These are averages for each role within one tournament. They do not set a minimum distance that every player should reach. FIFA’s 90+ minute label includes stoppage time; it should remain distinct from a statistic calculated for exactly 90 minutes.

Which soccer positions run the most?

Defensive and central midfielders recorded the highest average totals in this sample. Center-backs recorded the lowest. FIFA also separated wide midfielders from wide forwards, so combining both categories into a single “winger” average would lose part of the comparison.

The work behind a total can differ substantially. In FIFA’s player case studies, Achraf Hakimi’s role involved attacking support as well as defensive recovery runs. Josko Gvardiol’s work included covering space, pressing and recovering into defensive positions. Both contributed through movement, but their responsibilities created different demands.

Distance alone cannot identify the hardest position or the best player. FIFA’s analysis of team physical demands found no positive association between its physical metrics and teams’ win percentages at Qatar 2022. A larger total also does not, by itself, establish superior fitness or effort.

How much of that distance is sprinting?

According to FIFA’s analysis of how positions covered distance, walking and jogging made up a large share of total movement. A player covering seven miles therefore spends only part of that distance running at high speed.

The Qatar 2022 analysis used these categories:

• Total distance: distance accumulated across all measured speed zones.
• High-intensity distance: movement above 20 km/h, approximately 12.4 mph, combining Zones 4 and 5.
• Sprint distance: movement above 25 km/h, approximately 15.5 mph, in Zone 5.

Sprint distance is already included within the high-intensity figure. Adding the two together would count the sprinting portion twice. These thresholds belong to this analysis; another competition or tracking report may define its categories differently.

Possession labels need care, too. Distance covered “in possession” describes the team’s possession status. It includes both movement with the ball and supporting runs by teammates.

Why does running distance change between matches?

Start with playing time. A late substitute has fewer minutes to accumulate distance than a starter. A raw match total records the distance during that appearance. A per-minute figure divides distance by minutes played, while a per-90 figure scales that rate to 90 minutes. Those measures answer different questions.

Scoreline, opposition, possession and fatigue also influence physical demands. A team chasing a goal may press higher or commit more players forward. A team defending a lead may retreat into deeper positions. These are possible tactical responses; their effect on distance depends on how the match develops.

Roles can change the movement required even within the same formation. A false nine drops toward midfield to help connect play, while teammates can attack space farther forward. Such movements help explain why a position label alone cannot describe every player’s workload.

The competition matters as well. These men’s World Cup figures cannot automatically stand in for women’s, youth, amateur or small-sided soccer. Goalkeepers were excluded from the positional analysis, so it provides no goalkeeper average.

How far did Marcelo Brozovic run against Japan?

FIFA’s official Japan–Croatia match report, page 51 lists Marcelo Brozovic’s total distance as 16,639.6 meters, approximately 10.3 miles (16.6 km). The round-of-16 match took place on December 5, 2022.

Brozovic played the full 120 minutes plus stoppage time. His total therefore includes the additional 30 minutes of extra time, which the positional averages above exclude. Keep that difference in view when comparing a headline individual performance with tournament averages.

How is a soccer player’s running distance measured?

Professional football uses both optical systems and wearable devices to track movement. Cameras can follow players across the field, while the units held in GPS tracking vests can collect position and movement data during training and matches.

For Qatar 2022, FIFA used the TRACAB Gen5 optical tracking system. Its published methodology explains that the wider analysis covered all 64 matches, while the positional analysis included only outfield players who completed an entire match.

About the numbers: The table uses the labeled meter values in Figure 1 of Dr. Paul Bradley’s FIFA analysis, published May 24, 2023. We converted them using 1 mile = 1.609344 km and rounded both units to one decimal place. The figures retain FIFA’s normalized 90+ minute basis, including stoppage time and excluding extra time.

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