International Football
FITNESS, FOCUS, FRUSTRATION: LIFE IN LOCKDOWN FOR EUROPE’S FOOTBALLERS
Juventus midfielder Sami Khedira is learning to play the piano, La Liga clubs are facing off on playstation and Atalanta’s Robin Gosens has been revising for exams in psychology.
Yet as thousands of footballers, from the highest levels to the lower leagues, remain on lockdown while coronavirus spreads across Europe, all of them are tasked with keeping themselves fit, as well as entertained.
“Everyone needs to be ready so that when the health advice says resume, we can resume straight away,” Emmanuel Orhant, medical director of the French Football Federation (FFF) said.
Nobody knows when that will be and with the global death toll from coronavirus passing 13,000 on Saturday, there is little appetite yet even to address the question.
But within football, the absence of a deadline only enhances the sense of urgency. In theory, the season could restart in a matter of weeks and clubs are determined to be ready.
“Players may even need to get their summer break in now,” Brighton striker Glenn Murray told AFP.
“We might finish the 2019/20 season and then roll into 2020/21 without any break at all.” Asked if the players would accept that scenario, Murray said:
“We don’t have any choice.” It means fitness coaches and club doctors are creating week-to-week conditioning programmes, personalised for individual players, explained through Whatsapp and Skype, and dependent on both technology and trust.
“Every one of our players has been given the guidance they need from our coaches, nutritionists and doctors,” Real Betis head of medical Jose Manuel Alvarez told AFP.
“It is up to them to take it.” Betis, who sit 12th in La Liga, have divided their squad into groups depending on physical characteristics, with one coach assigned to each.
Devices then send data on fatigue, sleep, pain and even moods while players submit reports to the doctors on their weight and temperature, and to the fitness department regarding targets achieved.
“Players know if they don’t do their job they will be at a clear disadvantage against their teammates when normal training resumes,” Alvarez says.
In that sense, they are given no excuses. Many players already have gyms at home but club owners have paid thousands to ensure those without have all the equipment they need.
“A football player’s mechanics are precise, complex and sophisticated,” Marseille president Jacques-Henri Eyraud told AFP.
“And they require almost daily maintenance.”
Yet many clubs believe there is more to it than bikes and treadmills.
– SELF DISCIPLINE –
In Germany, Bayern Munich held their first ‘cyber-training’ session on Wednesday, when the players worked out through video-conference and then stayed online for an almost an hour to catch up.
In France, Lyon have told their players to rest until March 24, while in Spain, Atletico Madrid have done tactical work, with video meetings held between players and coaches to reinforce key messages.
Atletico are also particularly stringent on diets. Like most clubs, they deliver meals devised by their nutritionists but players also choose between options for lunch and dinner, which they then eat at the same time as their teammates.
Self-discipline will not come easy to some.
“Of course some players are better than others at handling this sitation,” Jonathan Barnett, agent of Gareth Bale and Stella Group, told AFP.
“Players are human beings too and at the moment they’re very frustrated.”
Much will depend on personal circumstances. Lockdown can either offer the chance to spend more time with family or leaves family far away and unusually difficult to reach.
Inter Milan’s Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku is unable to see his mother, who has high-risk diabetes, while Real Madrid’s Luka Jovic broke self-isolation rules when attempting to visit his girlfriend in Serbia.
“Some of our foreign guys have missed the opportunity to go home,” Brighton’s Murray said.
“It’s extremely difficult for them.”
Older players like Murray, who is 36, also feel the frustration of time being wasted.
“It’s made me more determined to play as long as I can,” Murray said.
And for those where football has forever been a way of life, boredom can quickly take hold.
“It’s so strange not being able to train,” AC Milan goalkeeper Asmir Begovic said last week.
“You try to do other things but there’s only so much Netflix you can watch.”
More generally, there seems to be an acceptance that no matter how thorough the programmes, players will return considerably less fit and far more prone to injury.
Philippe Piat, president of FIFPro, which represents professional players worldwide, told AFP: “The doctors say 15 days off needs 15 days of training so what will it take if there are three weeks off? They were clear: don’t be surprised if there are injuries.”
“The risk of injury is something we really do expect,” said Betis doctor Alvarez.
“They will never reach the level of a normal training session, that’s obvious. It’s a strange and completely new situation for everyone.”
-AFP
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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