Tallest Footballers

The tallest footballers in the world game

Association football has room for every body type, from Lionel Messi at 169 cm to strikers and goalkeepers who stand over 2 meters. This list ranks thirty notable footballers with a recorded height, from Costel Pantilimon at 203 cm down to a group at 196 cm. The average is about 198.2 cm (6′6″).

That puts them roughly 16 cm above the average Dutch man born in 1996, who at 182.5 cm belongs to the tallest population in the world according to the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration data on our Netherlands average height page.

The Premier League column comes from the league's official player data, which records a height in centimeters for everyone who has played in the competition. It is the most consistent single source for these players, and where it disagrees with this site the gap is discussed below.

Goalkeepers dominate the list

Eighteen of the thirty players are goalkeepers: Pantilimon, Forster, Kalinić, Courtois, Isaksson, Asmir Begović, Altay Bayındır, Edwin van der Sar, Maarten Stekelenburg, Daniel Schmidt, Giorgi Mamardashvili, Robert Sánchez, Petr Čech, Wojciech Szczęsny, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Joe Hart, Francesco Toldo and Vladimir Stojković. The positions are confirmed by each player's Wikipedia biography.

The reason is straightforward to see on the pitch. Wikipedia's profile of Thibaut Courtois says that his height and reach make him excellent in the air and help him command his area and claim crosses. Courtois, listed at 200 cm by the Premier League, began at Genk, made his senior debut at 16, joined Chelsea in 2011, won La Liga and the Europa League on loan at Atlético Madrid, won two Premier League titles back at Chelsea and moved to Real Madrid in 2018.

Several of the other keepers have similar pedigrees. Edwin van der Sar (197 cm, matching the Premier League figure) won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995 and with Manchester United in 2008. Petr Čech (196 cm) has been described as the greatest goalkeeper in Premier League history, according to Wikipedia. Gianluigi Donnarumma (196 cm) captains Italy and now plays for Manchester City. Fraser Forster (201 cm) holds the Scottish top-flight record of 1,256 minutes without conceding, set at Celtic.

The rest of the goalkeeping giants

The remaining keepers on the list come from almost every major league:

• Andreas Isaksson (199 cm on this site, 2.00 m on Wikipedia) began at Trelleborgs FF, spent two years at Juventus, won two Allsvenskan titles with Djurgården and later joined Manchester City.
• Asmir Begović (198 cm here, 199 cm in Premier League data) started at Portsmouth and moved to Stoke City for £3.25 million in 2010.
• Altay Bayındır (198 cm, matching the Premier League) made 145 appearances for Fenerbahçe before signing for Manchester United in 2023.
• Maarten Stekelenburg (197 cm) played 282 matches in his first spell at Ajax before moving to Roma, Fulham, Monaco, Southampton and Everton.
• Giorgi Mamardashvili (197 cm here, 1.97 m on Wikipedia) came through Dinamo Tbilisi, moved to Valencia and now plays for Liverpool.
• Robert Sánchez (197 cm, matching the Premier League) left Spain as a youth for Brighton and later joined Chelsea.
• Daniel Schmidt (197 cm here, 1.96 m on Wikipedia) plays for Nagoya Grampus in Japan's J1 League.
• Wojciech Szczęsny (196 cm) joined Arsenal from Legia Warsaw in 2006 and now plays for Barcelona.
• Joe Hart (196 cm) moved from his hometown club Shrewsbury Town to Manchester City in 2006.
• Francesco Toldo (196 cm), an Italian, is regarded by some pundits as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, according to Wikipedia.
• Vladimir Stojković (196 cm) is a Serbian goalkeeper who now plays for Čukarički in the Serbian SuperLiga.

Taken together, at least fourteen of the eighteen goalkeepers on this list have been signed by Premier League clubs at some point, according to their biographies, which is one reason the league's height records are such a useful cross-check.

Costel Pantilimon: a confirmed 203 cm

Costel Pantilimon is the tallest player on this list, and his height is confirmed by the Premier League, which records him at 203 cm and 90 kg. The Romanian goalkeeper began at Politehnica Timișoara, joined Manchester City in 2011 as a backup to Joe Hart, and was first choice in City's 2013–14 League Cup win before moving to Sunderland. He later played for Watford, Deportivo La Coruña, Nottingham Forest, Omonia and Denizlispor, and won 27 caps for Romania between 2008 and 2017, including selection for Euro 2016.

Daniel Van Buyten: corrected from 203 cm to 197 cm

Daniel Van Buyten was long quoted at 2.03 m, which once put him level with Pantilimon at the top of this list. Official sources disagree: the Premier League lists him at 197 cm, from his time at Manchester City, UEFA's player data gives 196 cm, and his Wikipedia biography also says 1.97 m. A 6 cm difference is too large to be rounding, so this site now follows the Premier League's 197 cm, which places him alongside van der Sar and Kanu rather than at the top.

His career needs no qualification. Nicknamed "Big Dan," he started as a striker at Charleroi, converted to centre-back, and played for Marseille, Manchester City, Hamburger SV and Bayern Munich. He won 83 caps for Belgium across 13 years, played at two World Cups, and became the first Belgian to win the Champions League when Bayern lifted the trophy in 2013.

Strikers who used their height: Koller, Žigić and Crouch

The three tallest forwards on the list each turned height into goals.

Jan Koller (202 cm, matching Wikipedia's 2.02 m) was noted for his height, strength and heading, and Wikipedia records that he was called a "human lighthouse." He was the Belgian league's top scorer with Lokeren, won two titles with Anderlecht, then scored 73 goals in 167 games for Borussia Dortmund, winning the Bundesliga in his first season. He remains the Czech Republic's all-time top scorer, with 55 goals in 91 games.

Nikola Žigić (202 cm) had to answer suggestions early in his career that he was better suited to basketball. His Wikipedia biography says a growth spurt from age 16 took him to 2.02 m. At Red Star Belgrade he ended a season as First League top scorer, domestic player of the year, league champion and scorer of the winning goal in the cup final, and his biography notes that his height did not prevent him from being agile.

Peter Crouch (201 cm, confirmed by the Premier League alongside a weight of just 75 kg) is the best-known tall striker in English football. Wikipedia credits him with 22 goals in 42 England games, more than 100 Premier League goals and the record for the most headed goals in Premier League history. His biography also records that crowds taunted him for his height throughout his career.

Two more forwards sit at 197 cm, and a third, Russian striker Artem Dzyuba, at 196 cm. Nwankwo Kanu, listed at 197 cm by the Premier League, was one of Arsenal's "Invincibles" and is one of very few players to have won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and an Olympic gold medal. Wout Weghorst (197 cm) scored 70 goals in 144 games for Wolfsburg before moving to Burnley in 2022.

Tall centre-backs

Per Mertesacker is recorded here at 200 cm; the Premier League and Wikipedia both give 198 cm. German tabloids nicknamed him "the Defence Pole," and Wikipedia notes that he defied predictions that his height would make him clumsy, averaging less than one foul per game and once going 31 league matches without a booking.

Dan Burn (201 cm, matching the Premier League) captains Newcastle United, his boyhood club, and has played for England. He made his league debut for Darlington in 2009 and worked his way up through Fulham, Yeovil, Wigan and Brighton. In an interview quoted on Wikipedia he summed up his situation: at 6′7″, he said, he cannot simply put on a cap and blend in.

Jannik Vestergaard (199 cm) and Dean Huijsen (197 cm on this site, 1.96 m on Wikipedia) round out the defenders. Huijsen, born in 2005, plays for Real Madrid and Spain after starting at Juventus.

Where this list's data needs care

Research for this page compared every height against the Premier League's records and Wikipedia's biographies. Most agree to within a centimeter. Where an official listing showed the site's earlier figure was wrong, the figure was corrected, and some players dropped off the list as a result:

Two smaller gaps remain: Per Mertesacker is recorded here at 200 cm against 198 cm from the Premier League and Wikipedia, and Asmir Begović at 198 cm against the league's 199 cm.

One entry is still unconfirmed. Helmut Schön, best remembered as the manager who led West Germany to the 1974 World Cup, is recorded here at 197 cm, but Wikipedia gives his playing height as 1.86 m. No official listing from his playing days has been found to settle it, so treat his place on this list with caution.

Beausejour's case shows how badly a single database entry can mislead: the Chilean left wing-back is a 178 cm player who had been recorded 20 cm too tall.

How these players compare with famous footballers

The biggest names in the sport are much shorter. Erling Haaland is listed at 195 cm by the Premier League, just below this list's cut-off. Cristiano Ronaldo is recorded at 185 cm, about 16 cm shorter than Crouch. Lionel Messi, at 169 cm, would stand 34 cm below Pantilimon.

To put any of these players side by side, open the height comparison tool or use the height difference calculator. Other rankings, from NBA centers to presidents, are on the tallest hub.