The logic of productivity is no game and since football was recognised as an industry, making money is as important as winning matches. We know very well that the product of this industry is called football and that the raw material is human beings, but clubs need money and players do not dislike money. The perfect combination to make football a high-risk territory that no one can stop. Whether it is a club or a national team, every week there is a disproportionate number of injuries that disrupt the activity of coaches, because among the pressures inherent to the position we must now add this weekly puzzle to put together a decent team with few resources.
In the past, the physical massacre of footballers was due to the lack of knowledge of the uniqueness of football. Training was based on athletics and if you questioned it you were accused of being unscientific. Nobody thought of basing the training of swimmers on athletics, but the popularity of football attracted prophets like flies and everyone dressed up as revolutionaries. Pre-seasons with three sessions a day because, if you didn’t suffer, it seemed like you weren’t training. Because of this confusion and the professional precariousness in disciplines such as nutrition, physiotherapy or prevention, each footballer had to survive as best he could and, at the end of his career, deal with the consequences of having played challenging the limits without much judgment for fifteen years.
The science of specific training has improved a lot, but today players live their profession with a stress that is almost unbearable. Muscular problems are the first logical consequence of accumulated fatigue, but many bone injuries are also the result of abuse due to excessive matches. Distances are measured incorrectly and motor incoordination occurs in turns and jumps with very serious consequences for health.
Barça, due to the quality of its school and also out of necessity, is showing us young players who are very gifted in football, who are sometimes tested by top competition with serious physical consequences. A boy with a child’s face also has the legs of a child. Paul Valéry, who knew nothing about football, said that “a man is only a man because of his skin. Skin him, dissect him and you will find the machine.” Youngsters, who play with boys of their age against inferior rivals, jump into the first team from one day to the next and, in addition to pushing themselves as never before for the size of the opportunity, they increase the number and intensity of the matches. The risk reaches alarming proportions. But Madrid and Atlético, with physically and mentally mature players, also fall victim to international travel, changes in climate and time and great competitive efforts. Because the fans, always insatiable, do not understand dosages. Whoever puts on the shirt has to kill themselves for it.
This week, Danilo made a statement about the new football. I heard somewhere that he sounded like a multimillionaire Che Guevara. Nothing of the sort. In defending the game, he defended the players and the fans. “Business,” he said, “is incompatible with the essence of football.” He spoke of the physical demands and the almost mathematical drift of tactics that AI will take to extremes that will increasingly distance the game from the fans. Brazil, due to its magical past, is one of the countries that suffers most from this change. Managers want two plus two to equal four and coaches want to sleep peacefully. For both things, a functionary is better than an artist. And if the functionary also plays tired, may God help football.
