Italians sure do love growing old like fine wine.
While Gianluigi Buffon is still playing at the top level of the game at 43 years of age and Giorgio Chiellini had a brilliant tournament at the back for the Azzurri to lift the European Championship this summer, there is another Italian at the twilight of his career who seems to have found the elusive fountain of youth.
The player in discussion is Fabio Quagliarella who has kept on defying all age barriers to still perform at the top flight of Italian football despite being 38 years old – as suggested by a newly surfaced stat on Twitter.
Who are the fastest players in Serie A so far
According to Sky Sports Italy, the Sampdoria forward is currently the fastest player in the Serie A as per statistics from this season.
While the new Serie A season is only two matchdays old and there might be a lot of changes in the charts with the lion’s share of the season yet to be played, it still does not take away anything from the fact that it is the 38-year-old Quagliarella who has clocked the fastest sprint in the league so far this season.
The former Italian international clocked a top speed of 35.07 kilometers per hour – racking up some astonishing figures for someone of his age, ranking him above many of the much more youthful other players on the list of fastest sprints this season.
After two rounds of Serie A, 38 year old Fabio Quagliarella is the FASTEST player in with a sprint of 35.07 km/h 👴⚡️
— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) September 8, 2021
📊 stat via Sky Sport pic.twitter.com/L17wKGxAkJ
AC Milan’s Théo Hernández follows up Quagliarella in both second and third position, with top speeds of 34.92 and 34.19 kilometers per hour respectively – while Federico Chiesa of Juventus is next up on the list with a top speed of 34.09 kilometers per hour.
Quagliarella’s feat seems even more deserving of all the plaudits when one takes into consideration that his rivals on the list are well over a full decade younger than him. While both Hernández and Chiesa are 23 years old, the next man on the list in Riccardo Sottil of Fiorentina is even younger at 22 years of age.
Fastest sprints so far:
— Italian Football TV (@IFTVofficial) September 8, 2021
1. Quagliarella – 35.07 km/h
2. Theo – 34.92 km/h
3. Theo – 34.19 km/h
4. Chiesa – 34.09 km/h
5. Sottil – 33.93 km/h
6. Rogerio – 33.87 km/h
7. Singo – 33.71 km/h
8. Dalbert – 33.68 km/h
9. Okereke – 33.66 km/h
10. Morata – 33.59 km/h
👆 via Sky
While Quagliarella’s incredible feat surprised most Serie A enthusiasts on Twitter, it was not the first time that the forward has defied age to outdo every other player in the league.
During the 2018/19 season, Quagliarella defeated one of the greatest footballers of all time in Cristiano Ronaldo to win the Serie A Golden Boot after scoring 26 goals in the league.
En route to the feat, he also netted in eleven consecutive matches – a record previously achieved by the one and only legendary Argentinian striker Gabriel Batistuta.
Sampdoria fans will hope that their evergreen talisman continues to evade retirement for as long as possible and keeps breaking records.
