By: Victor Olorunfemi

The United States national team would undoubtedly be better if its best athletes played soccer. Any counterargument to that point rests on a flawed understanding of what elite athleticism looks like and how it translates to the soccer pitch. How do I know this? Allow me to debunk the most popular myth people cite as the reason this wouldn't be the case: the idea that Lionel Messi, the greatest soccer player of all time, is a 5-foot-6, 160-pound man who has dominated despite subpar athleticism, purely through technique and an unrivaled understanding of the game.

In reality, Messi is one of the most athletic players ever, and his legendary dribbling stems from his genetically gifted acceleration, which is on par with that of NFL running backs. If you doubt that, watch the first minute of the video below, where an ESPN sports science study reveals his short-burst speed is equivalent to that of former NFL All-Pro running back Jamaal Charles.

Keep in mind that Charles was a three-time NFL All-Pro running back and a four-time All-American in track and field at the University of Texas. Messi matched that man's acceleration while running with the ball at his feet and evading defenders . . . but sure, tell me more about how he's not an elite athlete and that his physical gifts have nothing to do with the absurd, record-shattering career he has had.

Need another example? Take Kylian Mbappe, the global star who has led France to back-to-back World Cup finals. In 2019, he reached 23.6 mph during a soccer game. That is .34 mph faster than the top recorded speed in NFL history, set by renowned speedster and future Hall of Fame inductee Tyreek Hill.

The fact that many miss is that elite athletes come in all shapes and sizes, particularly in soccer, where the most important physical metric for success is agility and acceleration, not size. Reducing athleticism to size and muscular build shows an elementary understanding of it.

That is why I tweeted a few days back that the real miss for American soccer is not a LeBron James, whose straight-line athleticism would not translate well to soccer, but the countless 5'8"-5'11" NCAA Division I cornerbacks, wide receivers, and running backs who never picked up the sport. Their innate ability to accelerate, decelerate, and cut on a dime translates extremely well to soccer and is matched by the GOAT and many of the beautiful game's legends.

Would it work to take those kids in their teenage years and convert them to soccer? Of course not. But rewind the clock and introduce the sport to them in their formative years with quality coaching and development, and the results for the United States national team would be stunning. That is where the U.S. falls short: the vast majority of its best athletes never pick up the sport.

In France, every Kylian Mbappe prototype will and has played soccer, to the point where their current national team has multiple players whose top speeds would have ranked among the best in the NFL last season. If you cloned Lionel Messi's athleticism and changed his birthplace to Mississippi, the overwhelming reality is that he probably plays football, baseball, and/or basketball  without ever trying soccer.

And that is perhaps the most devastating miss. The United States has by far the best pool of natural athletes in the world due to its diversity and population. The idea is not that you will strike gold and that each kid with those athletic traits will become a world-class soccer player, but your odds increase significantly if those tens of thousands pick up the sport. And there are plenty of legitimate arguments for why the country's best athletes never play soccer, such as pay-to-play and so on, but the idea that the United States would not be much better if its best athletes played soccer is laughable.

The good news is that this future may be coming. The second goal the USMNT scored against Australia at the ongoing World Cup was by Alex Freeman, the son of NFL Super Bowl-winning wide receiver Antonio Freeman.