Aston Villa’s Fastest Players in the Europa League 2026
Now the dust has settled on Aston Villa’s Europa League triumph, it’s time to see, as we did after the recent Champions League campaign, who was the fastest recorded Villa player in the tournament. Interestingly, like Aston Villa’s fastest player in the Champions League, Villa’s quickest player again left before the tournament ended.
In the Champions League, Jhon Durán clocked 35.4 km/h before leaving Villa in the January window, and in the Europa League, Villa’s quickest two players in the tournament both followed suit and missed out on Villa lifting the trophy.
Both Donyell Malen (35.6 km/h) and Evann Guéssand (35.5 km/h) topped the speed kings chart last season, with both players topping Durán’s speed in the process. Guéssand’s pace was almost certainly a factor in Villa’s and Crystal Palace’s initial interest, it’s exactly the kind of metric that sways a data-driven recruitment process.
Despite only playing 16 minutes during the entire tournament, Andrés García, managed to clock up the third fastest Villa top speed of 34.6 km/h.
Watkins Breaks the Speed Trend
Ollie Watkins was Villa’s fastest regular starter at 34.5 km/h, which was up from the top speed of 33 km/h he clocked across the club’s Champions League campaign. Watkins bucked the trend of most Villa players clocking slower top speeds in the Europa League than they did a season earlier in the Champions League.
Morgan Rogers, Tyrone Mings, John McGinn, Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana, Matty Cash, Pau Torres and Emi Buendia all noticeably saw slower speeds. Ezri Konsa was the standout case, having matched Marcus Rashford’s top speed of 34.3 km/h during the Champions League making him Villa’s joint 3rd fastest player in that tournament, but only hitting 31.3 km/h in the Europa League, dropping down to only joint 16th in the squad last season.
The Fastest Aston Villa Players in the Europa League 2025/26
| Rank | Player | Top Speed (km/h) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Donyell Malen | 35.6 |
| 2 | Evann Guéssand | 35.5 |
| 3 | Andrés García | 34.6 |
| 4 | Ollie Watkins | 34.5 |
| 5 | Lamare Bogarde | 33.3 |
| 6 | Tyrone Mings | 33.2 |
| 6 | Morgan Rogers | 33.2 |
| 8 | Ian Maatsen | 33.0 |
| 8 | Jadon Sancho | 33.0 |
| 10 | John McGinn | 32.5 |
| 11 | Victor Lindelöf | 32.4 |
| 12 | Tammy Abraham | 32.3 |
| 13 | Amadou Onana | 32.1 |
| 14 | Emiliano Buendía | 31.6 |
| 14 | Pau Torres | 31.6 |
| 16 | Youri Tielemans | 31.3 |
| 16 | Ezri Konsa | 31.3 |
| 18 | Matty Cash | 31.2 |
| 19 | George Hemmings | 31.1 |
| 20 | Jimoh-Aloba | 30.8 |
| 21 | Boubacar Kamara | 30.5 |
| 22 | Lucas Digne | 30.2 |
| 23 | Harvey Elliot | 29.6 |
| 23 | Leon Bailey | 29.6 |
| 25 | Douglas Luiz | 28.3 |
| 26 | Kadan Young | 26.4 |
| 27 | Ross Barkley | 26.2 |
| 28 | Emiliano Martínez | 26.1 |
| 29 | Marco Bizot | 22.1 |
The speeds of the Villa backline dropping would certainly suggest that they were dealing with lesser top-end speed strikers in the Europa League, than they did the season before. It’s a sweeping generalisation, but the general picture suggests that Villa’s players didn’t reach the levels of intensity they needed against the likes of Bayern Munich and PSG during their Champions League campaign.
The biggest question, though, is why do Villa’s fastest players in UEFA tournaments seem to make such a swift exit in the January window? We’ll be watching the start of next season’s Champions League with interest.
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