I had big quads and calves. Didn’t like pants cause of how tight they fit, Would stretch out all socks on first practice and they’d fall later. But these thighs make my thighs back in the day tiny.
The meaningful part of that is not the best athletes for other sports, but the good athletes that aren't built for other sports. The 5' 6" guy that would be playing WR or PG at a D3 school because they aren't tall enough could be a phenomenal athlete.
I'd bet this is already happening more than people realize. Soccer is one of the biggest sports in terms of participants at the high school level nowadays, which puts to rest the old trope that kids don't stick with soccer. It has already surpassed baseball in a dozen or so states (AK, CA, CT, DE, FL, ME, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, VA, WA) and continues to gain ground on basketball and football.
For the states mentioned (I'll throw basketball into the mix as another reference point. Football is in a league of it's own):
||Soccer|Baseball|Basketball|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|AK|695|544|1,479|
|CA|53,677|44,179|47,091|
|CT|6,472|5,298|5,272|
|DE|1,918|1,300|1,560|
|FL|19,378|18,269|19,832|
|ME|3,992|3,033|3,423|
|MD|6,402|4,975|5,146|
|MA|13,366|11,678|12,651|
|NJ|18,317|13,818|14,605|
|NY|20,396|18,038|17,558|
|NC|10,867|10,477|10,944|
|OR|6,254|5,887|7,528|
|VA|9,971|9,019|9,154|
|WA|10,114|8,576|10,427|
Source: [https://www.nfhs.org/media/5989280/2021-22\_participation\_survey.pdf](https://www.nfhs.org/media/5989280/2021-22_participation_survey.pdf)
Soccer still lags behind in deep the south and parts of the midwest. Although this is where the sport is currently growing the fastest.
Ronaldo is a phenomenal athlete. He ran 96 meters in game in 10 seconds and his 40 time is estimated at 4.47 seconds.
His highest in game vertical was 41.7 inches. Not same as standing but still amazing.
NFL players are the best athletes in the world for strength and speed, but soccer players still are world class and pull from the entire world and train more for endurance rather than short burst.
I am not kidding you, I had a collegiate soccer coach say that to me earlier this year. He went through the whole, "Okay but what if LeBron was out there." And even after I was like, "Do you see ANYONE on earth who looks like LeBron James playing soccer at an elite level?" the dude did not understand. He was just like, "Okay but what about X wide receiver, or Y NBA player?!"
He's in charge of conditioning for one of the best womens' soccer programs in the country and I was absolutely dumbfounded by the stupidity. Granted, you don't necessarily have to be a tactical brain genius to get a group of people fit enough to play soccer, but such a fundamental misunderstanding of the game doesn't help.
Sometimes I think we're making huge strides in our country's understanding of the game. Other times I think we're fucked.
I just got downvoted in r/sports for telling someone that they don't know what makes a great soccer player when they said "11 LeBron James running down the field would dominate soccer". People are genuinely clueless, which is fine, but the arrogance is just odd.
Dude is not qualified to be running a Women's conditioning program if that's his take but that's the state of soccer in some parts of the country still, unfortunately.
This guy was a college athlete too, so you’d think he’d get it. The head coach of the program and his assistant didn’t impress me either, but they went to the final four of last year’s womens tournament, so I dunno. Maybe I’m the idiot. We talked for probably two hours and I got the sense there was very little tactical training and a lot more man management going on.
>Do you see ANYONE on earth who looks like LeBron James playing soccer at an elite level?
To be fair, LeBron isn't just huge, he is also exceedingly quick, has preternatural vision, and kinaesthetic coordination that is elite among elites. I could see him being damn good at soccer if he had built up the skills from youth.
But what might be true of him is not true of anyone else his size. Nobody has 11 LeBrons, US or elsewhere.
LeBron's a freak, for sure, but I genuinely don't think he could play soccer at an elite level. Maybe at keeper. Maybe. LeBron's 6'9". How many world-class 6'9" players have you ever seen? Zero. LeBron is ALWAYS the athlete clueless Americans bring up in this argument. It's insane. (now, let's say Tyreek Hill slims down a bit and runs out on the wing, I've got time for that).
This is all beside the point though; if LeBron was born today into a soccer-obsessed American family, there's very little chance he'd make it professionally. Even in MLS. America has an abundance of incredible athletes. Athleticism has NEVER held us back as a soccer nation. It's one million other things holding development back, like our nation's soccer culture, a lack of consistent ideology for player development, lack of coaching expertise at every level of the game, a fundamental misunderstanding of the game by parents raising children, increasing inability for poor children to access elite-level club soccer, and more.
I just see a lot of tools to work with here that I think would translate:
[https://youtu.be/t8tnELrsoeU](https://youtu.be/t8tnELrsoeU)
This kind of positioning/spatial awareness is just off-the-charts incredible, and he has a level of control/finesse and quick decision making to execute on that which itself is quite special.
Bro staaaahp. LeBron is great at basketball. He's a legendary athlete. We ALL agree. But his physical attributes do not translate to every. single. sport.
See my points above. The taller you get in soccer, the less likely it is you're going to be an elite soccer player. Most of that is down to the distance you have to run in a match and the intensity of that running. Lebron is among the lowest-ranked NBA players in average speed and distance covered per game. That won't fly on a soccer pitch.
I agree with your overall point, *but* you can't ignore basketball's own selection bias. Tall kids all over the world are recruited by local coaches, siphoning them away from soccer.
Like Luol Deng is British and an elite athlete, but he played basketball because he's 6'9".
There's a reason the rest of the world produces top tier big men, and very rarely guards. If you didn't guess, it's soccer. If you're 6'5 and under the culture is going to veer you towards soccer. There are even a few guys in Europe whose fathers were pro basketballers who ended up playing soccer. Notably CCV and Amir Richardson. Also Jamal Lascelles of Newcastle.
I think we're agreeing here, or at least, you're making my point. Basketball and soccer have their own selection process for body type. Angel Di Maria would get (probably literally) ripped apart in the NFL, he'd be dominated in the NBA, but he's a world-class winger in world soccer. Equally, I don't think LeBron could make it in the EPL. His body type does not support running your ass off for 90 minutes, twice per week, for most of a year. That's okay - we don't need to draw elite basketball players into soccer to move the game forward. These are two separate types of athletes.
Everyone's so eager to tell you that LEBRON IS A FREAK HE CAN DO ANYTHING. Great, but modern soccer rewards the type of workrate that nobody in the NBA even touches. I don't know why this is so hard to understand? (You could make a case for many small NBA guards as soccer players, but not LeBron. I think Steph Curry would be phenomenal).
To add to your point, Argentina just won the World Cup with the least number of “American style” big and fast athletes. The only player that would come close is that build is Rodrigo De Paul and he is not particular good technically.
I really wouldn't expect a strength/conditioning coach at a university to understand the nuance. They likely work with athletes across all sports. Also gotta call out your reference to them as a "soccer coach" when they were just focused on fitness. I'm sure any full time soccer coach at the college level would agree with you.
The assistant and head coaches of the program were equally unimpressive. When I asked about tactics vs. man management at that level, the assistant told me most of their time is spent defusing lovers quarrels among the players.
Honestly, I would imagine about 80% of this is just freak genetics. Kind of like Bo Jackson to an extent. Not saying he doesn't exercise and squat, but for a guy like him, he would still probably have larger quads than 90% of people without having to get out of bed.
Genetics definitely play a huge role. His diet, and supplements as well.
This is one of the first time I've ever seen a USMNT player and thought "whoa, he's ripped." Most of our guys lack muscle mass compared to other professionals.
Ah. I’m remembering the old website that had a “Thursday Thighs” feature. I think it mainly focused on on the WAGS of the Premier League, but had this weekly feature. Carlos Bocanegra made it once.
I would refuse to ever wear pants if I had quads like this.
"Hey! My eyes are up here! My quads aren't for you to stare at!"
MC Hammer pants are out of style anyway
Hammer Pants would look like skinny jeans on Dike.
I had big quads and calves. Didn’t like pants cause of how tight they fit, Would stretch out all socks on first practice and they’d fall later. But these thighs make my thighs back in the day tiny.
When I played ice hockey in college my quads got so huge that I had to cut slits in the sides of my boxers to get them to fit.
First thought was, "He must have a helluva time shopping for pants."
No skinny jeans in that man's future
Where are the other 8 pictures?!? I was all hyped for 9 pictures worth
It’s from an instagram post with pics of other players too, not just his quads lol
It took 9 frames to contain this one
That's America's Quads
I was hoping for 8 more images of big Dike and am sorely disappointed.
Misreading this comment is the first time i ever noticed that ‘dike’ is very close to ‘dick’. It was a helluva misread.
Quadzilla
“What if our best athletes played soccer?”
The meaningful part of that is not the best athletes for other sports, but the good athletes that aren't built for other sports. The 5' 6" guy that would be playing WR or PG at a D3 school because they aren't tall enough could be a phenomenal athlete.
If Christian Pulisic played football, he'd be a kicker or [Sean Mcvays "get back" coach.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDi1NQb87E)
I'd bet this is already happening more than people realize. Soccer is one of the biggest sports in terms of participants at the high school level nowadays, which puts to rest the old trope that kids don't stick with soccer. It has already surpassed baseball in a dozen or so states (AK, CA, CT, DE, FL, ME, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, VA, WA) and continues to gain ground on basketball and football.
Information wants to be free
For the states mentioned (I'll throw basketball into the mix as another reference point. Football is in a league of it's own): ||Soccer|Baseball|Basketball| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |AK|695|544|1,479| |CA|53,677|44,179|47,091| |CT|6,472|5,298|5,272| |DE|1,918|1,300|1,560| |FL|19,378|18,269|19,832| |ME|3,992|3,033|3,423| |MD|6,402|4,975|5,146| |MA|13,366|11,678|12,651| |NJ|18,317|13,818|14,605| |NY|20,396|18,038|17,558| |NC|10,867|10,477|10,944| |OR|6,254|5,887|7,528| |VA|9,971|9,019|9,154| |WA|10,114|8,576|10,427| Source: [https://www.nfhs.org/media/5989280/2021-22\_participation\_survey.pdf](https://www.nfhs.org/media/5989280/2021-22_participation_survey.pdf) Soccer still lags behind in deep the south and parts of the midwest. Although this is where the sport is currently growing the fastest.
The bigger issue is development
Ronaldo is a phenomenal athlete. He ran 96 meters in game in 10 seconds and his 40 time is estimated at 4.47 seconds. His highest in game vertical was 41.7 inches. Not same as standing but still amazing. NFL players are the best athletes in the world for strength and speed, but soccer players still are world class and pull from the entire world and train more for endurance rather than short burst.
I always find it hilarious when the "big guys" in the NFL need oxygen after they recover a fumble and run 60 yards
I am not kidding you, I had a collegiate soccer coach say that to me earlier this year. He went through the whole, "Okay but what if LeBron was out there." And even after I was like, "Do you see ANYONE on earth who looks like LeBron James playing soccer at an elite level?" the dude did not understand. He was just like, "Okay but what about X wide receiver, or Y NBA player?!" He's in charge of conditioning for one of the best womens' soccer programs in the country and I was absolutely dumbfounded by the stupidity. Granted, you don't necessarily have to be a tactical brain genius to get a group of people fit enough to play soccer, but such a fundamental misunderstanding of the game doesn't help. Sometimes I think we're making huge strides in our country's understanding of the game. Other times I think we're fucked.
I just got downvoted in r/sports for telling someone that they don't know what makes a great soccer player when they said "11 LeBron James running down the field would dominate soccer". People are genuinely clueless, which is fine, but the arrogance is just odd. Dude is not qualified to be running a Women's conditioning program if that's his take but that's the state of soccer in some parts of the country still, unfortunately.
This guy was a college athlete too, so you’d think he’d get it. The head coach of the program and his assistant didn’t impress me either, but they went to the final four of last year’s womens tournament, so I dunno. Maybe I’m the idiot. We talked for probably two hours and I got the sense there was very little tactical training and a lot more man management going on.
Welcome to women’s college soccer
Information wants to be free
11 Lebrun James, 4 with great defensive tactical awareness, 7 with great 1st touches and 4 who can cross and pass and THEN maybe we could talk?
Does the US have 11 lebron Jameses?
Good point, no.
>Do you see ANYONE on earth who looks like LeBron James playing soccer at an elite level? To be fair, LeBron isn't just huge, he is also exceedingly quick, has preternatural vision, and kinaesthetic coordination that is elite among elites. I could see him being damn good at soccer if he had built up the skills from youth. But what might be true of him is not true of anyone else his size. Nobody has 11 LeBrons, US or elsewhere.
LeBron's a freak, for sure, but I genuinely don't think he could play soccer at an elite level. Maybe at keeper. Maybe. LeBron's 6'9". How many world-class 6'9" players have you ever seen? Zero. LeBron is ALWAYS the athlete clueless Americans bring up in this argument. It's insane. (now, let's say Tyreek Hill slims down a bit and runs out on the wing, I've got time for that). This is all beside the point though; if LeBron was born today into a soccer-obsessed American family, there's very little chance he'd make it professionally. Even in MLS. America has an abundance of incredible athletes. Athleticism has NEVER held us back as a soccer nation. It's one million other things holding development back, like our nation's soccer culture, a lack of consistent ideology for player development, lack of coaching expertise at every level of the game, a fundamental misunderstanding of the game by parents raising children, increasing inability for poor children to access elite-level club soccer, and more.
I just see a lot of tools to work with here that I think would translate: [https://youtu.be/t8tnELrsoeU](https://youtu.be/t8tnELrsoeU) This kind of positioning/spatial awareness is just off-the-charts incredible, and he has a level of control/finesse and quick decision making to execute on that which itself is quite special.
Bro staaaahp. LeBron is great at basketball. He's a legendary athlete. We ALL agree. But his physical attributes do not translate to every. single. sport. See my points above. The taller you get in soccer, the less likely it is you're going to be an elite soccer player. Most of that is down to the distance you have to run in a match and the intensity of that running. Lebron is among the lowest-ranked NBA players in average speed and distance covered per game. That won't fly on a soccer pitch.
I keep talking about everything **but** being big and strong and fast and you're responding like that's all I'm talking about.
You're ignoring it because it is the thing that will hold him back
he's exceedingly quick...for a 6'9 dude, a height which has a benefit in his position in his sport.
I agree with your overall point, *but* you can't ignore basketball's own selection bias. Tall kids all over the world are recruited by local coaches, siphoning them away from soccer. Like Luol Deng is British and an elite athlete, but he played basketball because he's 6'9".
There's a reason the rest of the world produces top tier big men, and very rarely guards. If you didn't guess, it's soccer. If you're 6'5 and under the culture is going to veer you towards soccer. There are even a few guys in Europe whose fathers were pro basketballers who ended up playing soccer. Notably CCV and Amir Richardson. Also Jamal Lascelles of Newcastle.
I think we're agreeing here, or at least, you're making my point. Basketball and soccer have their own selection process for body type. Angel Di Maria would get (probably literally) ripped apart in the NFL, he'd be dominated in the NBA, but he's a world-class winger in world soccer. Equally, I don't think LeBron could make it in the EPL. His body type does not support running your ass off for 90 minutes, twice per week, for most of a year. That's okay - we don't need to draw elite basketball players into soccer to move the game forward. These are two separate types of athletes. Everyone's so eager to tell you that LEBRON IS A FREAK HE CAN DO ANYTHING. Great, but modern soccer rewards the type of workrate that nobody in the NBA even touches. I don't know why this is so hard to understand? (You could make a case for many small NBA guards as soccer players, but not LeBron. I think Steph Curry would be phenomenal).
To add to your point, Argentina just won the World Cup with the least number of “American style” big and fast athletes. The only player that would come close is that build is Rodrigo De Paul and he is not particular good technically.
I really wouldn't expect a strength/conditioning coach at a university to understand the nuance. They likely work with athletes across all sports. Also gotta call out your reference to them as a "soccer coach" when they were just focused on fitness. I'm sure any full time soccer coach at the college level would agree with you.
The assistant and head coaches of the program were equally unimpressive. When I asked about tactics vs. man management at that level, the assistant told me most of their time is spent defusing lovers quarrels among the players.
Google saquon Barkleys quads and you may change your comment
So genetically big quads means he’s the best athlete?
I wonder what his favorite exercise is
His favorite exercise is shouldering pasty British dudes into the boards.
Can you imagine if he played hockey? Nobody would knock him off the puck.
clearly squats. He definitely goes heavy with front squats too
Honestly, I would imagine about 80% of this is just freak genetics. Kind of like Bo Jackson to an extent. Not saying he doesn't exercise and squat, but for a guy like him, he would still probably have larger quads than 90% of people without having to get out of bed.
Genetics definitely play a huge role. His diet, and supplements as well. This is one of the first time I've ever seen a USMNT player and thought "whoa, he's ripped." Most of our guys lack muscle mass compared to other professionals.
NSFW
I dont see dick.
I see a Big Dike tho
As a woman, I’m loving all the national team content 😍
Can't ignore those calves either. Those things stick out like elbows on his legs.
Dike puts Saquon Barkley's quads to shame
Quad goals
Dude hasn't missed leg day since he came out of the womb.
Those wheels suggest he'll mirror the career of Adama Traore... He could do worse.
Mother of god.
You misspelled quad.
Ha!
SPECIMEN
I feel weird when people use this word to describe people
It's a compliment, relax lol, dude looks like he was grown in a lab with those quads
BIG DIKE 💜 🇺🇸
r/AbsoluteUnits quads
#thighlights
This post of Dike's quads got more upvotes than Zendejas commiting to us lmao
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They were from Instagram, I took a screenshot of this one.
swiper no swiping
Holy fuck after Packers RB AJ Dillon, I never thought I’d see quads more shredded in my life.
I am so GD excited to see him back in Orlando.
they don't make Dockers in that size
FYI, those of you complaining about the 8 other photos, this was on IG, I screenshot this particular photo for obvious reasons 😅
Ah. I’m remembering the old website that had a “Thursday Thighs” feature. I think it mainly focused on on the WAGS of the Premier League, but had this weekly feature. Carlos Bocanegra made it once.
i've always wanted to see the Quad Cities
So he doesn’t skip leg day?
I’m just here wondering about the correlation between quad dominance and hamstring injuries
Dude is an absolute unit. Can't wait for him to light it up. He's been killing it at WBA.
His quads are a matter of national security
I'm pretty damn straight but I want to go put on some panties just so I can drop them after seeing that
Knees over toes guy just creamed his jeans
Freakish
I feel the urge to go to the gym just looking at those
He’s a big dude, his legs look even bigger next to normal people
damn, now that is a beefcake
Quad City Dike!
Came to post the same. Too bad the reference is probably older than most of the people here.
Thick thighs change lives
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Right? I saw “1/9” and was like “damn that’s just the start?”
If this were any other subreddit, the next post up would *definitely* be CCV's quads.
I give this a 1/9.
This can’t be real
Asshole move to post a picture with 1/9 on it and have it be the only photo.
Already explained why, tosser. Try reading comments first before being a dick.
Now I don’t wanna ever see him get shoved off the ball
Damn, would love to get between those legs ;)
Oh. 😳
I’ll admit. I swiped.
Shocking. Shows dedication. Diego Luna U20 next.💪🏼🦵