Find out which players have taken the most touches, along with the most inside the opposing penalty area.
Touch leaders 2025-26
Which Premier League players have taken the most touches and touches in the opposition box this season?
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What is a touch?
The Opta definition tells us a touch is awarded “when the ball bounces off a player and there is no intentional pass, we award a touch. When a player mis-controls the ball with a poor touch, we award an unsuccessful touch. Also used for mishit shots which go backwards towards a player’s own goal”.
Meanwhile, touches are defines as “a sum of all events where a player touches the ball, so excludes things like Aerial lost or Challenge lost”.
What do touch numbers tell us about a player?
It generally means a player is involved in area of the pitch in which most of the action occurs.
This is normally in the first two thirds of the field and, therefore, you will tend to find defenders and midfielders boasting the higher figures.
In terms of the defenders, it is because most of the build-up play starts with them. Meanwhile, higher numbers can point to a central midfielder’s impact on the game, and sometimes means they are dictating play.
However, a striker proves that it does not matter how many times you touch the ball, but what you do with it. Indeed, they may not record many during a match, but those that they do tend to have the biggest impact on matches, i.e. goals and assists. They, therefore, tend to be judged by a different category of ‘touches in opposition box’ in order to provide a fairer reflection.
Who has the most touches in Premier League history?
Touch stats only go back to the 2006-07 season in the Premier League, when Opta’s records began.
With a staggering 32,747 recorded since his Premier League debut in March 2010, Kyle Walker can boast the highest tally in the competition’s history.
Second to him on the list is Jordan Henderson with just under 4,000 fewer, while a select group of players to have surpassed the 25,000 mark also includes the likes of James Milner, Gareth Barry and Virgil van Dijk, with Cesc Fabregas just below on 24,440.
Just behind him on 24,318 is Andrew Robertson, who you would expect to easily climb into the 25,000 bracket this season.
What do you notice about those players? They are all midfielders and defenders. Wayne Rooney holds the highest tally of an attacking player with 20,761 but, even then, he has to settle for 22nd place on the all-time list.