Kicking a ball hard can be a useful skill in soccer. Instead of tiki-takaing your way down a field, you can simply hoof the ball to the other side of the pitch with one strong-legged kick. With that in mind, a goalkeeper being able to kick the ball farther than anyone would be valuable, just like hitting a home run or shooting a 3-pointer. So what’s the Guinness World Record for the longest drop kick? The answer may surprise you.
Manchester City just wrapped up the 2018 Premier League title in record-breaking fashion. They’ve won more games (by a larger margin), wracked up more points and scored more goals than anyone else in league history. They’ve done with Pep Guardiola’s signature brand of football, the team passing its way up the pitch with beautiful precision.
And yet it’s Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson who set the record for the longest drop kick in soccer on Friday.
.@edersonmoraes93 attempts the World's Longest Football Kick to make the @GWR! #mancity pic.twitter.com/ToUKov19kT
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 11, 2018
Guardiola probably doesn’t want Ederson to be hoofing it way up the park often, but it’s a useful skill to have in the proverbial tool kit.
Ederson actually has excellent distribution, as seen here. That said, in the Premier League, teams whose goalkeepers play a higher percentage of short balls have a higher rate of team success.
So while Ederson may hold the Guinness World Record for the longest drop kick, it’s not necessarily a skill he will want to use every time. But at least he got a cool certificate out of the deal. And, as the Guinness World Record dude told him: He's "officially amazing," and that's better than any record, right?
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