association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, work rate refers to the extent to which a player contributes to running and chasing in a match while not in possession of the ball. Work rate is generally indicated by the distance covered by a player during a match. An example of a player with a high work rate is Xavi, a former midfielder for

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. During the final of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League, Xavi ran almost 12 km, more than any other player in the game. The same is true of the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, when he covered a distance of 14.98 km (including extra time). A high work rate is valued because players with this characteristic will be able to play a more active role in defending and attacking throughout a match. Conversely, players are sometimes criticized for low work rate; for instance, ESPN Soccernet correspondent Sam Limbert highlighted a poor work rate as one of the weaker qualities of Arsenal midfielder Denílson Pereira Neves. However, some experts, such as former

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

youth coach Carlos de Lorenzi, warn against the danger of equating high work rate with high talent. De Lorenzi had responsibility for the early development of such players as Brazilian star Kaká.

References

{{Reflist Association football terminology Association football tactics Rates