Manchester United had some truly incredible athletes in the mid-to-late 2000s.
Indeed, the Red Devils dominated English football during that period as they boasted players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs.
Of course, all of those players were technically brilliant, but they were also incredibly fast and incredibly fit.
Interestingly, speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Owen Hargreaves has now made an interesting claim about his time at Manchester United and his injuries.
According to Hargreaves, he himself was the fastest and fittest player at United for a period, ahead of the likes of Ronaldo, Rooney and the rest.
Owen Hargreaves says he was the fastest and fittest player at Manchester United
Hargreaves spoke about his physical abilities before his injuries.
Hargreaves was a fantastic player at his best, and the £17m man says he was actually the fastest and fittest player at Manchester United.
Cristiano Ronaldo is an all-time great, but Hargreaves reckons he could go toe-to-toe with CR7 at that point.
“I was never the same again after that. And I was 27. And bear in mind, I was probably, I was the quickest, probably had the best endurance,” Hargreaves said.
“That’s why I played at that level. Cause I didn’t realise that until they did all the testing. But that’s what probably, that was part of my skillset that I was so explosive. And probably a lot of that contributed to the injury. You know, being so explosive.”
“And I didn’t know that. I just played on instinct, right? So once people started to tell me, oh, you’re the quickest, we’d do the sprint test, I’d win.
“And endurance wise, so when I went into a game, even though I was tired, I knew I could push myself more than anybody else.”
What Rio Ferdinand said about Owen Hargreaves’ pace
The idea of Hargreaves being the fastest player at Manchester United during this period does sound ludicrous in a lot of ways.
Indeed, Hargreaves was hardly known for his pace on the pitch as a midfield player, but, this isn’t just a case of the former England star blowing his own trumpet.
Speaking on his podcast, Rio Ferdinand also backed up this claim, stating that Hargreaves would win every single race at United when the players were being tested.
“He came into the training ground when he signed, and we done testing, and he blew everyone out of the water,” Ferdinand said.
“He blew everyone away; we used to do like 10 yards, 20 yards, and he won every race. Wayne Rooney used to go to the guy, ‘Who’s playing with the machine? Owen can’t be the fastest.”
Some players are deceptively quick, Ben White is the fastest player at Arsenal, despite many believing Gabriel Martinelli is Arsenal’s fastest player, and it would appear Hargreaves is one of those speedsters who doesn’t perhaps stand out due to his style of play.
