Top 15 Tallest Soccer Players in The World
The average height of a soccer player is 5-foot-9, not particularly
tall. When one looks at the greatest player of all time, the likes of
Diego Maradona, Pele, Ferenc Puskas and Johan Cruyff, they are all under
six feet. Take a look at today’s top players, including Lionel Messi,
Eden Hazard and Neymar, and the trend continues. Of course, some buck
the trend, with obvious examples including Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano
Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, all of whom are taller than six feet.
The
tendency towards shorter players is no surprise, especially in creative
and attacking players, as a more diminutive size means a lower center
of gravity and often lends itself to better control and agility.
Meanwhile, for central defenders and some attackers, height can be a
huge advantage, in the obvious case of aerial duels. The other position
which tends to see taller players is in goal, you rarely see a top class
goalkeeper under six feet.
This list is restricted only to
players who have played at a respectable level of soccer, therefore
there are no amateur or part-time players. The list includes Premier
League and international soccer stars, as well as some less familiar
faces. So tall are the men on this list that the likes of Omar Gonzalez,
Fernando Llorente and Per Mertesacker miss out; heck, Peter Crouch only
just makes it! Here are the top 15 tallest soccer players in the world:
15. Peter Crouch
Probably
the most well-known giant in soccer, Peter Crouch has spent the last 15
years in the Premier League, starring for QPR, Portsmouth, Aston Villa,
Southampton, Liverpool, Tottenham, Stoke and England. He overtook Alan
Shearer last season as the top scorer of headed goals in Premier League
history, which is hardly surprising considering Crouch stands at a
towering 6-foot-7. With 22 goals in 42 games for England, Crouch has a
fine international pedigree, and is surprisingly good on the ball for a
man of his height.
14. Jan Koller
Jan
Koller is arguably the most talented soccer player on this list, and
another who will be well-known to a lot of people. Koller played for the
likes of Anderlecht, Borussia Dortmund and Monaco, winning titles in
the Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany, leading the divisions scoring
charts in 1999. Standing at 6-foot-7.5, Koller had a very good goal
scoring record over his career of 199 goals in 483 games, but had an
even better record for his country. Koller played 91 times for the Czech
Republic, scoring 55 goals; making him the nation’s all-time leading
scorer.
13. Stefan Maierhofer
Stefan
Maierhofer has played in both the Bundesliga and the Premier League,
with Bayern Munich and Wolves, although he could never find regular
first team soccer with either side. Maierhofer rarely seems to hang
around long at a team, becoming something of a journeyman, and currently
finds himself in the Championship, England’s second tier, with Millwall
FC. A striker, Maierhofer stands at 6-foot-7 and a half inches tall,
and has 19 caps for Austria, in which time he has managed to score only
once.
12. Nikola Zigic
Another
familiar face and well-known giant of the game, Nikola Zigic is best
known for his time with Red Star, Valencia, Birmingham and the Serbian
national team. The Serbia team are no stranger to having giants in their
team, but even among his compatriots Zigic dwarfs them, at 6-foot-7 and
a half inches, the same height as Maierhofer. Zigic earned legendary
status in Birmingham after he scored in the 2011 League Cup final which
saw Birmingham beat Arsenal 1-0 and win the competition. He has played
57 times for Serbia, scoring 20 goals.
11. Oyvind Hoas
A
little less known perhaps, Oyvind Hoas has never played at
international level and currently plays in the second division in
Norway. Hoas is a towering striker who stands at 6-foot-8, making him
one of the tallest outfield players in the world. Hoas almost moved to
England in 2007 after trials with (at the time) League One side Luton
Town, but failed to sufficiently impress and remained in Norway, where
he currently plays for Honefess.
10. Costel Pantillmon
Back
to a familiar face and back to the Premier League in the shape of
former Manchester City and current Sunderland goalkeeper Costel
Pantillmon. The Romanian, like Hoas, is an impressive 6-foot-8, meaning
it is little effort for him to reach up and touch his crossbar. Romania
have a number of tall athletes, notably retired NBA star Gheorghe
Muresan and deceased boxer Gogea Mitu, both of whom were well over
seven feet tall. Pantillmon may not be that tall but he is still tall
enough to be considered the tallest player in the Premier League today
and possibly in Premier League history.
9. Lacina Traore
Lacina
Traore is another man who comes in at 6-foot-8. The Monaco striker is
only 24 years of age and had a brief loan at Everton last season. His
former clubs include Anzhi and Cluj, the Ivorian won the Romanian title
with the latter of the two. Traore has failed to make an impression in
the tax-haven of Monaco, having played only six games and scoring only
once, but will hope to play more games next season without Dimitar
Berbatov to compete with. Traore has eight caps for the Ivory Coast and
has scored four goals.
8. Jason Mooney
Frank Dwyer / Yorkpress.co.uk
Jason
Mooney is a Northern Irish goalkeeper who has spent most of his career
in the English lower leagues with the likes of York City, Accrington
Stanley, Waycombe Wanderers and Tranmere Rovers. Mooney is 6-foot-8 and a
half inches tall, making him one of the tallest players in Britain. He
is currently without a club having been released by Accrington Stanley
this summer. He is 26 years old, meaning that as a goalkeeper he still
has plenty of time to develop his game and become a solid first team
player for someone.
7. Yang Changpeng
Nicknamed
“China’s Peter Crouch” by the British press when he had trials at
Bolton Wanderers back in 2006, Yang Changpeng is an enormous striker who
hails from Wuhan, China. Changpeng showed promise as a youngster, and
was only 17 when he came to England for trials with the then Premier
League club, having already played for China at U20 level, but the move
did not materialize and the forward has struggled ever since, now
finding himself in China’s second division and having never won a cap
for the first team. Changpeng is 6-foot-8 and a half inches tall, making
him the tallest Asian soccer player.
6. Tor Hogne Aaroy
Svein Ove Ekornesvåg / SCANPIX
Players
of EA Sports FIFA 15 may known Tor Hogne Aaroy as he is the tallest
player on the game, but I’m afraid he is only the sixth tallest player
in real life. The game credits Aaroy as being 6-foot-8, but he is
actually half an inch taller than that. Like many tall soccer players,
Aaroy hails from Norway, unsurprising given that the country has one of
the highest average heights in the world. Aaroy has spent all but two
seasons of his career in Norway, with only a brief stint in Japan in
between. Aaroy has been called up to Norway’s national team but has
never actually been capped.
5. Tonny Brogaard
Another
Scandinavian, Tonny Brogaard is a Danish goalkeeper who has rarely been
a regular starter or any club he’s played for. He had a brief spell in
England with Doncaster Rovers but soon found himself back in Denmark.
Aged 31, Brogaard is back at his boyhood team of Frem who play in the
Danish third division. Brogaard is 6-foot-9, and has been nicknamed ‘the
Gentle Giant’ in his native Denmark.
4. Daniel Muller
via muenchner-torwattrainer.de
Daniel
Muller is a German goalkeeper who has had two stints with Bayern
Munich, but never made a first team appearance for the Bavarian giants.
Muller also spent time at Augsburg, again failing to break into the
first team; and has now dropped down the leagues to find regular
football, now with the lesser-known Bavarian team SV Seligenporten.
Muller is also 6-foot-9, over five inches taller than current Bayern
goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who is fairly tall himself.
3. Vanja Ivesa
Veteran
goalkeeper Vanja Ivesa is 37 years old and has been in soccer for more
than two decades. Ivesa has spent the majority of those 20 years in his
native Croatia, although there have been a couple of spells in Turkey
and Australia in there, the second of which being with Sydney United,
the second biggest soccer team in the city. Ivesa, like Muller and
Brogaard, stands at 6-foot-9, and returned to Croatia this year after
three years in the Turkish second division.
2. Paul Millar
Paul
Millar is the tallest soccer player in Britain, the tallest outfield
player in the world and the second tallest soccer player in the world.
The giant striker stands at a staggering 6-foot-10. Millar never came
through the ranks of an academy but was selected to play in a Royal Air
Force team and impressed sufficiently to be invited to play for Scottish
side Elgin City, where he signed in 2010 and has remained ever since.
Having started his career late, Millar scored 15 goals in 66 games
before picking up a nasty injury this year which could potentially end
his career. He still works at the RAF Kinloss Base and works as a
fireman.
1. Kristof van Hout
Ron Gaunt/ ISL/ SPORTZPICS
Kristof
von Hout is officially recognized as the tallest professional soccer
player in the world, measuring at a heighty 6-foot-10. He is supposedly a
centimeter taller than Millar, giving him the title outright. The
Belgian is a scary looking goalkeeper who one would expected to claim
most aerial balls floated into the box. The biggest club Hout has played
for is Belgian giants Standard Liege, and he currently plays for
Belgian Pro League side KVC Westerloo, who he joined this summer. Hout
won the Belgian Cup with Genk back in 2013, his only trophy as a player
to date.
ofcos crouch cant miss
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