Five of the world’s ten slowest football leagues in a recent CIES study are in the Americas. Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Paraguay all made the list, which probably won’t surprise anyone who spends their weekends watching South American or Liga MX football. But what exactly does slow mean, and does it actually make the games worse to watch?
In September, the CIES Football Observatory and SkillCorner examined the share of distance players covered at speeds below 15 kilometres per hour across 62 leagues. The UAE Pro League topped the ranking at 83.6 percent, followed by Ecuador’s Liga Ecuabet at 82.3 and Peru’s Liga 1 at 82.0. Colombia’s Liga Betplay Dimayor came fifth, with Liga MX seventh and Paraguay completing the top ten. The CIES findings attracted plenty of attention in Colombia, where the domestic league’s pace has been a talking point for years.
A separate November comparison of running above 15 km/h put the English Premier League and German Bundesliga level at 22.2 percent, followed by North America’s MLS at 21.6. The Liga Argentina registered 20.7, Brazil 20.2, Liga MX 19.4 and Colombia 18.1. The numbers are interesting, but the conclusions people draw from them are another matter. South American football is played at a different pace from much of Europe, and there are good reasons for that, along with some bad ones, but there’s not enough evidence to say the Americas are actually producing bad footballers because the on-field pace of games is slower.
What Does Slow Football Actually Mean?
Fifteen kilometres per hour is a jog. The CIES measure records the proportion of distance covered below that speed, not how fast players can sprint when they need to. A centre-back walking into position, a midfielder moving into space and a winger recovering after an attack all contribute to the figure. It also doesn’t measure how long the ball stays in play, which is an entirely different problem.
On that separate question, South American leagues have some explaining to do. A 2025 CIES study using IMPECT data placed Peru at the bottom of 65 leagues for effective playing time, with around 47 and a half minutes of football per match. Ecuador and Argentina were also near the bottom. Anyone who watches Liga 1 or the Colombian league regularly will recognise the pattern: a match can go several minutes without much happening, then produce a dangerous counterattack from three passes.
Sometimes that’s good game management, and sometimes it’s two teams taking too long to create intensity and attacking pressure in matches. Those are different things, and the statistics don’t always separate them. The football itself can be slow for long stretches before suddenly becoming very intense, which is part of what makes these leagues interesting to watch, despite being start/stop affairs.
Altitude, Heat and the South American Game
Before discussing tactics, look at where these matches are played. Quito is 2,850 metres above sea level, Bogotá is around 2,640 metres, Cusco 3,400 and El Alto in Bolivia more than 4,000. A team visiting Quito from the coast isn’t going to press for 90 minutes as though it were playing at sea level. Players have to manage their efforts, particularly when they haven’t had time to acclimatise.
Liga MX has its own altitude problem, with Toluca, Pachuca and Mexico City hardly easy places for visiting teams to play. Then there is the heat. Guayaquil, Barranquilla and Monterrey can be miserable places to chase the ball for an afternoon, especially in the warmer months. The conditions affect how teams approach matches, how much energy they spend and when they choose to press.
It is worth noticing that the UAE and Saudi Arabian leagues also feature near the top of the CIES ranking. That suggests climate could be part of the explanation, although the data doesn’t establish how much of the difference comes from heat or altitude. Not every South American match is played in the mountains, either, and plenty of lowland clubs adopt a slower approach. Still, geography matters, and a style that works in England in October doesn’t automatically make sense in Quito or Barranquilla.
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The Whistle Is Part of the Problem in Americas Football Leagues
There is another reason Latin American football can feel slow, and it has nothing to do with the players’ physical abilities. The refereeing plays a considerable role, particularly in leagues where matches are interrupted constantly and every free kick or possible VAR review for a card becomes a lengthy negotiation.
A 2021 CIES study of 38 leagues found that Latin American matches lost an average of 15 minutes and 43 seconds to stoppages following fouls. In the European leagues surveyed, the figure was 13 minutes and four seconds. The difference wasn’t simply that Latin American players committed more fouls. The average stoppage lasted 35.2 seconds, compared with 30.8 in Europe, while Colombia recorded the longest average pause after a foul at 38.3 seconds.
Watch a Colombian league match and you can see where those seconds go. The player stays down, the referee talks to three people, the wall takes forever to move back and somebody stands over the ball to stop a quick restart. By the time the free kick is taken, everyone has recovered. Some teams are very good at using those interruptions to their advantage, and an experienced side protecting a lead knows exactly how to take the pace out of a match. When playing a “superior” team, many sides purposely know how to burn clock to secure a draw or a win when they are the underdog.
But let’s not pretend all of that is beautiful football. Supporters pay to watch the ball move, and too much time disappears between whistles. The “pausa” can be an important part of the game, especially when a team wants to control possession or slow an opponent’s momentum. Deliberate time-wasting is still time-wasting, no matter how good a team becomes at it.
Why the Veterans Like Salomon Rondon Keep Scoring
The most interesting consequence of a slower game is the kind of footballer who can continue succeeding in it. The Americas have no shortage of veterans who are still among the best players in their leagues, and the scoring charts make for some remarkable reading.
At 37, Salomón Rondón leads Liga MX’s Apertura scoring chart with 16 goals for Pachuca, five ahead of Henry Martín. In Chile, Fernando Zampedri is still scoring regularly for Universidad Católica at 38, and his closest pursuer is another veteran, Colo-Colo’s Javier Correa, with 18 goals. Colombia has Hugo Rodallega and Dayro Moreno, both 41, competing near the top of the scoring charts. Dayro is closing in on 400 career goals, and neither looks particularly interested in retiring after this season concludes in December.
Then there is Enner Valencia. At 37, the Ecuadorian returned to Argentine football with Boca Juniors and scored the stoppage-time winner against Defensa y Justicia that secured first place in the annual table. Ángel Di María is another example. He no longer has the acceleration that made him such a threat at the top of the game for Real Madrid and PSG, but at Rosario Central, Argentina’s second place side on the annual table, he can still change a match with one pass or one movement.
These players haven’t survived simply because their leagues are slower. They’re excellent footballers who have adapted, and a striker who knows where a cross is going doesn’t need to win a footrace every time. A midfielder who recognises the next pass can make opponents do the running. Look at Leandro Paredes at Boca or Edwin Cardona at Atlético Nacional. Neither needs to turn a match into a track meet to control it.
Arturo Vidal’s Second Career at Colo-Colo
Arturo Vidal might be the best example of all. At 39, the former Juventus and Bayern Munich midfielder has been reinvented as a defender in Colo-Colo’s back three. He doesn’t have to cover the same ground he once did in midfield, instead using his positioning, anticipation and experience to organise the defence.
And the results have been impressive. A September CIES performance study ranked Vidal as the highest-performing centre-back in South America, with a score of 80.1 out of 100. He has helped Colo-Colo win the Chilean championship, another title in a career that has already taken him through some of Europe’s biggest clubs. His legs have changed, but his understanding of football hasn’t.
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Of course, there are limits. Not every veteran can keep playing forever, and Brazil’s younger attacking stars show that pace and athleticism remain valuable in South American football. The Brasileiro dominates many South American matchups simply due to a higher level of athleticism in the XI. Experience still buys a player plenty of time on the ball, particularly when he understands the spaces better than the opponents trying to close them.
Even the Player Ratings Favor Experience
The individual performance ratings make for interesting reading. Lionel Messi, now 39, and likely the MLS MVP for 2026, received an 8.57 Sofascore rating in MLS, the highest figure among the leading league award winners in the comparison. That is particularly interesting because MLS ranks third in the November running-speed table, just behind the Premier League and Bundesliga.
Messi isn’t succeeding because everyone around him is walking. He is succeeding in one of the faster leagues in the study, despite no longer being the player who could sprint past half a defence at Barcelona. He has adjusted his game around passing, positioning and choosing exactly when to make a run in bursts, which is something most MLS defenders have proven helpless to stop, as Messi still teams up with the aged Luis Suarez to create goals for Inter Miami.
And Messi isn’t the only veteran making a difference in MLS. Antoine Griezmann arrived at Orlando City in July at 35 years old and has helped push the Lions into the playoffs. The Frenchman produced 14 goals and eight assists in just 18 regular-season starts, helping Orlando climb from outside the playoff places to eighth in the Eastern Conference. He was also named MLS Player of the Month for October and November, with six goals and four assists across seven matches. Griezmann was never just a sprinter, even in his Atlético Madrid days, and his movement, passing and finishing are still making defenders miserable. If anything, his success in one of the faster leagues on the continent makes the argument about experienced players even more interesting.
The Veteran Playmakers Still Running the Show
In Brazil, Giorgian De Arrascaeta remains one of Flamengo’s most important players at 32, and on FotMob’s ratings the Brasileirão is led by another conductor, Cruzeiro’s Matheus Pereira at 7.76, who also creates more chances than anyone else in the league. The creativity charts point the same way: Coritiba’s Josué leads the assists table with 11, with Palmeiras’ Andreas Pereira on 10, and Fluminense also fielding a veteran laden team.
Yeison Guzmán at América de Cali is another example of a creative midfielder whose influence comes from finding space and choosing the right pass, while América de Cali’s Luis Quiñones rates 7.78 with six assists. Edwin Cardona, the Atletico Nacional “gordo” midfielder who treats sprinting as optional, remains among the Colombian league’s best-rated players at 7.42.
Peru has an even better example in Yoshimar Yotún. At 36, the Sporting Cristal midfielder has six goals and 13 assists in the 2026 league season, He is still creating chances and controlling matches in a competition that sits near the top of the CIES slow-speed ranking. Yotún has never needed to be the quickest player on the pitch to make a difference. His passing range, experience and ability to find teammates in dangerous positions have kept him among Peru’s most productive midfielders.
Argentina has Ignacio Fernández, another 36-year-old who continues to make himself useful at Gimnasia La Plata. The former River Plate midfielder remains heavily involved in possession, and his recent performances have been impressive. Fernández isn’t running past defenders like a winger. He is finding spaces, picking passes and doing much of his best work before opponents have worked out where the ball is going.
In Chile, the assists chart is topped by Jean Meneses and Maximiliano Guerrero with nine apiece, while Javier Correa’s 18 goals also place him near the top of the player ratings. There is a common thread across these leagues, but it isn’t that older players are automatically better when the game slows down. Good players learn to make decisions earlier, and when they lose some of their speed, that ability becomes even more valuable.
Sergio Canales Explains the Liga MX Paradox
Sergio Canales offered a useful perspective in September. The former Rayados midfielder, back in Spain’s La Liga with Racing Santander, was asked about the differences between Spanish football and Liga MX during an appearance on Mario Suárez’s podcast. He criticised the tactical level in Mexico, but praised the league for being vertical, adventurous and full of quick transitions and chances.
As Fox Sports Mexico reported, Canales claims he saw plenty of speed in a competition that ranks among the slowest by the CIES measure. There is no contradiction. A league can spend a large proportion of its running distance below 15 km/h and still produce fast, open football when possession changes.
Liga MX is particularly good at this. Teams can spend several minutes passing the ball around midfield, then suddenly find themselves defending a three-on-two counterattack. Canales benefited from those spaces himself, scoring 18 goals in 2024 and enjoying one of the most productive periods of his career as Monterrey made a solid run at the Club World Cup, and reached one league final during his time with the club. His experience is a reminder that the average pace of a league doesn’t tell you everything about what happens when a team attacks.
Juan Brunetta’s Brilliance at Tigres
You can see the same thing at Tigres with Juan Brunetta. The Argentine has become one of Liga MX’s most influential attacking midfielders, and his ability to find space between defenders is a big reason why. Brunetta has 13 combined goals and assists, leading Tigres in attacking contributions. He can score himself, but much of his value comes from knowing when to release a teammate or arrive in the box.
Brunetta is only 29, so he isn’t another example of a veteran extending his career. That’s what makes him useful to this discussion. He is an excellent player in his prime who benefits from the spaces and transitions that make Liga MX so entertaining, despite its relatively low average running speed. Put him alongside Canales, and you begin to understand why the league can look slow in one passage of play and completely chaotic in the next, and this for a side that has already been eliminated from title contention this season.
Daniel Muñoz Is the Answer to the Slow Football Argument
If anyone still thinks the Colombian league produces slow footballers, Daniel Muñoz is a useful player to bring up. Muñoz developed at Águilas Doradas and Atlético Nacional before moving to Genk and eventually Crystal Palace, before a move to Nottingham Forest this most recent transfer window. His career has taken him from one of the slowest leagues in the CIES comparison to one of the fastest, and he hasn’t had much trouble keeping up.
In April 2026, Crystal Palace highlighted his pace. According to the club, Muñoz had covered more distance while sprinting than any other Premier League player in the period measured, while analytics firm Gradient Sports had identified him as the division’s most athletic player that season. This is a footballer who came through Colombia and became one of the Premier League’s most relentless runners.
Muñoz didn’t suddenly discover how to sprint when he arrived in England. He was already an exceptional athlete at Nacional, but the demands of his position, his team and the competition changed as his career progressed.
Ecuador offers another example through Independiente del Valle, a club that continues to develop and export talent while competing in one of the slower leagues in the CIES study. That doesn’t mean the Colombian or Ecuadorian leagues have nothing to improve. Their clubs still face serious problems with finances, infrastructure and the standard of competition, but average running speed isn’t a reliable shortcut for judging the players they produce.
The next time somebody calls South American football slow, ask them what they mean. Are the players incapable of running faster, or are the teams choosing when to press? Are they playing at altitude, dealing with oppressive heat or waiting another minute for the referee to organise a free kick?
Extra Time Notes
The biggest surprise in the CIES figures might be MLS, which sits close to the Premier League and Bundesliga for running above 15 km/h. Messi and Griezmann are thriving in that faster environment at 39 and 35, while Yotún and Ignacio Fernández are still creating chances in two of South America’s slower competitions. Brunetta is doing the same at Tigres in the prime of his career. There is no single American style of football, just as there is no single South American one, and the conditions can change dramatically within the same country. There are genuine problems with stoppages and wasted time in several Latin American leagues, and supporters have every right to complain about them. But running more isn’t the same as playing better. Daniel Muñoz didn’t become an elite athlete when he left Colombia, and Messi didn’t forget how to play when he stopped being the quickest man on the pitch. Football still rewards knowing when to run, not just how often.
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