By Chris Wright

There’s bugger all going on elsewhere thanks to the crawling International lull in which we’re currently engulfed, so we thought we’d take a trip back at random to Highbury, 16th September 1996 – the day Sheffield Wednesday striker David Hirst broke the sound barrier using nothing but his feet.

Okay, maybe not the sound barrier, but Hirst did set the record (which still stands today) for the fastest shot ever recorded in the Premier League when he tonked an Exocet against the crossbar from 15-ish yards out which was officially clocked at 183 km/h. That’s 113.7 mph in old money…

Hirst still holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest ever shot recorded in the top division of English football, though a couple of players rank higher than him elsewhere.

The second fastest shot ever recorded was Ronald Koeman’s cracker against Sampdoria which settled the 1991/92 European Cup Final in extra time, with the Barcelona centre-back’s set piece strike peaking at 188 km/h, that’s 116.81 mph y’all…

The man with the most powerful shot is a chap by the name of Ronny Heberson, though his claim is still unofficial. It is widely agreed that Ronny’s blistering freekick for Sporting Lisbon against Naval in 2006 reached a top speed of 211 km/h or 131.82 mph…

Boom!

Tags: david hirst, fastest shot, sheffield wednesday
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