While the average height of the soccer players is around 5’11’’, there are players that stand out with their unusual height. It’s a public opinion that tall players are slower and they are not able to cover as much ground as the shorter players, but they definitely have an advantage when it comes to headers and aerial duels.
From goalkeepers to centre-backs and central midfielders, these are the tallest soccer players in the world of professional football.
Simon Bloch Jorgensen
- Age: 29
- Height: 210 cm
- Weight: 85 kg
The first and the tallest professional soccer player on our list is the Danish goalkeeper Simon Kristian Bloch Jorgensen, who plays for the English club Waltham Abbey. Considered to be the tallest active goalkeeper in the world, he spent his youth career in Danish clubs like Frem, FC Copenhagen and B.93. After that, he moved between lower rung clubs in England and once played in the EFL Cup with Accrington Stanley.
Unhappily, he never made it to play for the national team of Denmark. His grandfather Bloch Kristian Petersen and great-uncle Kaj Hansen are also former footballers.
Kristof Van Hout
- Age: 35
- Height: 208 cm
- Weight: 110 kg
Another goalkeeper on our list that stands out with his height of an amazing 208 cm is Kristof Van Hout, the second tallest soccer player in the world. The Belgian giant is currently playing for Westerlo, a club that competes in the Belgian First Division B. He started his career in the Belgian club Lommel, where he played for nine years, before moving to Willem II.
Van Hout’s sports career is not so notable, as he changed several clubs, with the most famous of them being Genk, with whom he won the Belgian Cup in 2013. Besides playing in the European clubs, he also showed his goalkeeping skills in the Indian League’s club Delhi Dynamos (now Odisha Football Club) for only one season.
Paul Millar
- Age: 34
- Height: 207 cm
- Weight: 87 kg
Paul Millar is a Scottish football player that lastly played for the Scottish club Deveronvale as a striker but is most noteworthy for playing for Elgin City from 2010 to 2014. Reportedly, the club’s staff was forced to increase the entrance’s height so that this 207 cm high athlete could pass through. At the annual award ceremony, he was also inducted into the Kirkcaldy YM Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, he had to retire relatively early because of an ACL rupture back in 2013, that he suffered in the last minute of a home match against Clyde FC. He continued playing until 2016, but never fully recovered from this injury.
Vanja Iveša
- Age: 44
- Height: 205 cm
- Weight: 97 kg
The Croatian goalkeeper who stands among the tallest football players with his gigantic size of 205 cm, has recently retired from professional soccer in 2021 at the age of 44. In 2018, he became the oldest player to have played in the Croatian First Football League. Iveša started his career at Istra and spent his senior career in various clubs in his homeland, but also made appearances for Sydney Croatia, a team formed by Croatian Australians in the area and spent seven years in Turkey, playing for Eskisehirspor and Elazigspor.
During his 26 year career, he didn’t succeed in winning a title but was two times runner-up with Eskisehirspor in 2012 and Slaven Belupo in 2008.
Daniel Muller
- Age: 29
- Height: 205 cm
- Weight: 83 kg
It’s unlikely that you have heard of his name, but it’s his towering height that helped him to start a professional career in Germany. His football skills were the thing that attracted Bayern Munich to bring him into their ranks, but unluckily he wasn’t able to impress them enough to make a first-team appearance.
Muller also failed to make it to the first team while being at Augsburg. Currently, he is playing for SV Seligenporten, a not-so-known Bavarian team that competes in the fifth German League, Bayernliga.
Tor Hogne Aaroy
- Age: 45
- Height: 204 cm
- Weight: 95 kg
Among all the goalkeepers with more than 2 meters in height, the Norvegian forward also finds himself on the list of the tallest soccer players. Tor Hogne Aaroy spent his football career playing in several Norvegian clubs, but also played for one season in the Japanese club JEF United Chiba.
He spent the most time in Aalesund, marking 90 goals on 242 appearances. His stay at Rosenborg was not very pleasant, because of the injuries he had. In 2009, Aaroy had been called up to the national team, but he declined the call to stay home because of the soon arrival of his second child.
Yang Changpeng
- Age: 33
- Height: 205 cm
- Weight: 81 kg
Yang Changpeng is a Chinese football player that plays as a striker and he’s just another one of the giant football players with a height of 205 cm. He has been reported without a club since January 2021. During his career, he had played for several Chinese clubs, like Chengdu Blades, Meizhou Kejia, Yinchuan Helanshan and Shenzhen Fengpeng.
Back in his young years, Changpeng was a promising player when Bolton Wanderers showed interest in him in 2006, and even British media nicknamed him the “Chinese Peter Crouch”. Unfortunately, during his one-month trial in England, he failed to impress with his skills, so he returned to China.
The 33-year old striker is currently a free agent with a value between €0.2 and €0.3 million.
Jason Mooney
- Age: 33
- Height: 204 cm
- Weight: 89 kg
The Northern Irish goalkeeper, Jason Bryan Mooney, as a semi-professional footballer, has never been involved in professional games, but it was his towering height and agility that convinced various English and Northern Irish clubs to bring him to their ranks. He had a few jobs while playing in Northern Ireland. His beginnings were at the club Ards, with whom he won the Youth League Cup in 2008, before debuting for the first team.
Mooney had contracts with many clubs that kept him for only one or two seasons. He made most appearances while being on loan at Oxford City in 2011/12 (35) and also in season 2015/16 at Accrington Stanley (26). Currently, he’s keeping the net for an amateur club named Donaghadee FC.
Lacina Traore12
- Age: 31
- Height: 203 cm
- Weight: 87 kg
Lacina Traore is one of the few tallest soccer players in the world to have ever played for big football clubs. The Ivorian forward, nicknamed “The Big Tree” due to his enormous figure, is currently defending the colours of the Portuguese team Varzim. His hometown club ASEC Mimosas was the place where he took his first football steps, before his successful move to CFR Cluj with 21 goals on 82 games. After that, he spent three years in Russia, playing for Kuban and Anzhi, when Monaco paid around $14 million for him and sent him on loans to big clubs like Everton, CSKA Moscow and Sporting Gijon.
Traore’s international career is not that long, with one CAF U-23 Championship in 2011 and one CAF Africa Cup of nations in 2013. He also played a part in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, when the Ivory Coast squad won it.
Costel Pantilimon
- Age: 35
- Height: 203 cm
- Weight: 96 kg
Last but not least on the list is the Romanian goalkeeper that is currently a free agent. He started his career at Politehnica Timisoara, where he had 115 apps in six years, but spent most of his career in England. The Romanian giant is mostly known for playing for Manchester City, Sunderland, Watford and Nottingham Forest. Lastly, he played for Denizlispor.
Pantilimon debuted for the first Romanian national team in 2008 in a friendly match against Georgia and was also chosen for the UEFA Euro 2016. He also represented Romania with the U17, U19 and U21 youth national teams.
Bottom Line
Every human being on the planet has some unique feature and the common one for these athletes is their unusual height for a football player. As we can see, most of them are goalkeepers, but there are also pretty tall defenders like Van Dijk and Pique or strikers like Haaland and Ibrahimovic.
While shorter players have better dribbling skills, the taller players definitely have a big advantage in connecting headers and clearing the ball.
So, which player would you add to the list of tallest soccer players?