Top 5 Fastest Wingers in the World Right Now (2026)

Some wingers are fast. Some are so fast that full backs just stop running and start praying.

In 2026, these five are in a different conversation entirely. GPS numbers, real matches, no guesswork. Here is who is leaving defenders for dead right now.

5. Ousmane Dembélé — PSG | 36.51 km/h

Few players have wasted more time than Dembélé once did. Six years at Barcelona. 127 league appearances. Constant injuries. A talent so obvious that Xavi called him potentially the best player in the world when used properly, yet it never happened at the Camp Nou.

Then he went to PSG and became a completely different person.

In 2024/25, he scored 33 goals and provided 15 assists as PSG won a continental treble. He won the UCL Player of the Season, the Ligue 1 Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or. This season he already has 10 goals and 5 assists in 17 Ligue 1 appearances. The version of Dembélé playing right now is what everyone always believed he could be, just four years later than expected.

At 36.51 km/h, his pace is the foundation that makes everything else possible. He is genuinely ambidextrous and can beat a defender on either side at full speed. Defenders know what he wants to do. They still cannot stop him.

2025/26 League Stats: 10 goals | 5 assists | Rating: 7.53

4. Pedro Neto — Chelsea | 36.86 km/h

Before he played football seriously, Pedro Neto was on roller skates. His father was a professional roller hockey player in Viana do Castelo, a small town in northern Portugal, and Pedro was skating at age three. He only started organised football at eight. That background explains things about him that statistics do not. His low centre of gravity. His ability to shift direction at pace without losing the ball. The way he absorbs contact and keeps moving.

He joined Chelsea in August 2024 and won the Conference League and Club World Cup in his first season. This year in the Premier League he has 5 goals and 4 assists in 30 appearances. Those numbers look modest until you watch him play. Most wingers his pace slow down with the ball. Neto reaches 36.86 km/h with it glued to his feet, which is a different skill entirely.

2025/26 PL Stats: 5 goals | 4 assists | Rating: 7.07

3. Anthony Elanga — Newcastle United | 36.90 km/h

Born in Malmö while his father Joseph, a Cameroon international who played at the 1998 World Cup, was turning out for Malmö FF. The family later moved to Manchester, where Anthony joined United’s academy at 12. He grew up quietly, came through the ranks quietly and left for Nottingham Forest without much fanfare.

At Forest he found himself. Six goals and 11 assists in his final season earned him a £55 million move to Newcastle in 2025. At St James’ Park, his job is simple. Get the ball in space and run. Few players in English football do that more effectively.

His 2025/26 season has been disrupted by injury, which explains why his goal and assist numbers are lower than expected. But when he is fit and running at defenders, his 36.90 km/h makes him the fastest of Newcastle’s three representatives in the Premier League top 10 speed rankings this season.

2025/26 Stats: 1 assist in PL | 2 UCL goals

2. Karim Adeyemi — Borussia Dortmund | 36.65 km/h

His father is Nigerian, his mother is Romanian, and he grew up in Munich dreaming of playing for Bayern. They let him go from their academy after a dispute. He found his way through Red Bull Salzburg, scored 19 goals in 29 games in his final season there, and Dortmund paid £27 million in 2022. Nobody has doubted him since.

Adeyemi’s verified Bundesliga top speed is 36.65 km/h, making him the fourth fastest player ever recorded in the German top flight. Off the pitch, he runs the Karim Adeyemi Foundation in his father’s hometown of Ibadan, Nigeria, working to educate students and develop young footballers.

This season he has 23 goal involvements in all competitions for Dortmund, his best single-season return in BVB colours. He plays with fearless aggression and rarely wastes a run. When Dortmund need someone to attack space at speed, Adeyemi is the first name on the team sheet.

2025/26 Stats: 7 Bundesliga goals | 3 assists | 3 UCL goals

1. Kylian Mbappé — Real Madrid | 38 km/h

Bondy, northeast Paris. A suburb not known for producing much. Then Mbappé arrived.

Real Madrid invited him to train with their under-12s when he was 11 years old. He made his professional debut at 16, won a league title at 17, and became the most expensive teenage transfer in football history at 18. In September 2025, he became France’s all-time top scorer, overtaking Thierry Henry. Before his 27th birthday, he had already scored more career goals than most players manage in a lifetime.

Mbappé’s recorded top speed of 38 km/h was measured via GPS tracking during Champions League matches, making him the fastest winger on this list. It is worth noting that while this figure is widely cited, there is no single official league-level verification system for his speed in the same way Premier League or Bundesliga tracking works. What is not in doubt is what your eyes tell you when he runs.

This season across all competitions: 40 goals and 3 assists in 39 appearances. He is having one of the great individual seasons in the history of the position.

2025/26 All-Competition Stats: 40 goals | 3 assists | 39 appearances

Speed Comparison Table

Rank	Player	Club	Verified Top Speed
1	Kylian Mbappé	Real Madrid	38.0 km/h
2	Karim Adeyemi	Borussia Dortmund	36.65 km/h
3	Anthony Elanga	Newcastle United	36.90 km/h
4	Pedro Neto	Chelsea	36.86 km/h
5	Ousmane Dembélé	PSG	36.51 km/h

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Who Nearly Made It

Gabriel Martinelli recorded the highest top speed among wingers in the Premier League this season, clocking 36.74 km/h against Newcastle. Vinícius Jr, Alphonso Davies and Bryan Mbeumo are all knocking on this door. The gap between them and the players on this list is smaller than it looks.

Speed in football is getting faster. The average top speed of the ten fastest footballers has increased by 4.2 percent over the past decade, from 34.2 km/h in 2016 to 35.6 km/h in 2026. The players pushing the limits now are doing things that would have been physically impossible a generation ago.

This list will look different in two years. That is what makes it worth watching.