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The story
A thread kicked off with the claim that “being short is an advantage in soccer,” and 5ch users pushed back hard. Someone brought up data showing that the top scorers across Europe’s big 5 leagues average about 185cm in height, sparking a debate over whether short legends like Pelé, Maradona, and Messi are actually the exception rather than the rule. Others pointed out that it really depends on the position.
What people said
Pelé was in the low 170s (cm)
Maradona was around 165cm
But defenders who can't afford to lose aerial duels definitely need the height.
There used to be a player named Fabio Cannavaro, you know
Zidane's about the only exception.
That guy's a textbook physical elite athlete
That's a disadvantage in reach for us
That's a disadvantage in reach to the ball
Well, I don't really know much about Pelé, admittedly
But Maradona was like a little boulder
Even he'd be below average if he played basketball
Nah, I bet some surprisingly tiny star player will show up eventually
Premier League
1st Haaland 27 goals 195cm
2nd Igor Thiago 22 goals 190cm
3rd Semenyo 17 goals 185cm
La Liga
1st Mbappé 25 goals 178cm
2nd Muriqi 23 goals 194cm
3rd Budimir 17 goals 190cm
Serie A
1st Lautaro 17 goals 174cm
2nd Maren 14 goals 178cm
2nd Dovbyk 14 goals 186cm
Bundesliga
1st Kane 36 goals 188cm
2nd Undav 19 goals 179cm
3rd Guirassy 17 goals 187cm
Ligue 1
1st Lepaul 21 goals 181cm
2nd Greenwood 16 goals 181cm
2nd Panichelli 16 goals 190cm
Average height of these 15 players: approx. 185cm
Taller than I expected, honestly
Guess goal-scoring forwards really do need height after all
The era of short guys dreaming big is over
Yamal's around 180cm now, right?
Son Heung-min, here we go again
Yeah, height's got nothing to do with it
By the way, Argentina averages 179cm
Japan's about the same, I think
Assuming the shorter guy puts in just as much effort, of course
but for midfielders, my impression is that the world's top players are actually mostly in the 170s (cm).
That's exactly why soccer's a more equal-opportunity sport than most others
Then in the Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar, Salah, Griezmann, Hazard era, it was all short guys
Is the tall-player era making a comeback now?
It's the opposite
Spain winning brought back the passing-soccer era
Same thing happened back when Barça was dominant—it became all about passing then too
Or airsoft, where being small makes you harder to spot
Generally speaking, being tall is the advantage
Tennis is a clear example—short players got weeded out
Still, today's top tennis players are only around 180-something cm
so it's not like they're that tall
I love players like that
The guy who broke Kazu's nose, huh 🅆 (referring to Japanese soccer legend Kazuyoshi Miura)
Background and Key Points
Being short is an advantage in soccer, the OP says. Data from Europe’s “Big 5” leagues—the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1, the highest-revenue domestic competitions in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France—undercuts that: the top three scorers in each league this season average roughly 185cm, taller than the general adult male population in any of those countries. That framing matters because soccer’s short-legend mythology runs deep: Pelé (~172cm), Maradona (~165cm), and Messi (~170cm) are held up worldwide, including in Japan, as proof that skill beats size.
The thread didn’t split on whether tall players dominate scoring charts—the data settled that. It split on why. Some read the height average as confirmation that physicality now rules center-forward play. Others argued the stat is misleading because it only counts strikers and center-backs, positions that have always favored height, while midfielders (Rodri at 190cm was the thread’s own counterexample, notwithstanding) and creative players still skew shorter. No consensus emerged on whether soccer overall favors height or is, per one poster, more “equal-opportunity” than sports like basketball or tennis.
What the thread never addressed: national team averages. A poster noted Spain averages 181cm (32nd of 48 nations) and Argentina 179cm, implying height barely correlates with success at the country level even as it does among individual scorers—a tension nobody in the thread reconciled. Readers unfamiliar with Japanese soccer discourse should also know the “short players can still win” narrative carries extra weight domestically, since Japan’s national team has long been shorter than its European and South American rivals.
※This article is an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “No matter how you look at it, soccer’s a sport where being short is an advantage.”
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