This is extremely impressive for a goalkeeper
Jordan Pickford’s performance against Colombia during England last 16 World Cup victory will be remembered for many things.
There was his stunning save from Mateus Uribe late in injury time, a stunning stretching stop which saw the Everton keeper utilise every last millimetre of his fingers to make one of the great World Cup saves.
There was, of course, also his penalty save, which put England into the World Cup quarter-finals and saw Pickford become the first England goalkeeper since David Seaman to save a penalty in a World Cup shoot-out.
Incredibly, that isn’t all Pickford achieved last night, because it has come to light that the goalkeeper also managed to cover a distance of almost 8,000 metres throughout the game.
In total, Pickford covered 7,468 metres, according to research carried out by Ben Dinnery, which equates to roughly 56 metres per minute of the 120 minute game.
Jordan Pickford covered 7468m during the win over Colombia. By far, the most of any goalkeeper during the finals. #ENG #EFC
For context.
De Gea 🇪🇸 3498m vs 3834m 🇷🇺 Akinfeev
Subasic ðŸ‡ðŸ‡· 4577m vs 4816m 🇩🇰 Schmeichel
Romelu Lukaku 🇧🇪 [vs Panama] 😳 7948m 😳 pic.twitter.com/o2nQda6rAV
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) July 4, 2018
Now, exactly what this means is hard to decipher, other than the fact that Pickford is clearly mobile, and perhaps enjoys moving around his box quite a bit.
Alternatively he might just have been nervous – like everyone else last night – and paced around the box to keep himself occupied.