Since August, footballers from large clubs can play more than 15 games in two months, a burden that causes injuries and many complaints
BARCELONA — A top-level footballer, Hugo Sánchez, played 54 games for Real Madrid in the 1986-87 season while Gary Lineker, in the same season, reached 56 between Barça and the English team. In the 2023-24 season Federico Valverde reached 65 between Real Madrid and Uruguay, while Lamine Yamal he stayed at 64 with the Barcelona and Spain.
More trips, more concentrations, more games, more tournaments… More of everything and less vacations and less rest. and some calendars that will be loaded more in the immediate future. and the players already at the limit. Of his physique and his patience. He problem It is not exclusive to a team, but it does affect one more like the Barcelona.
Ter Stegen is one of the hard casualties for Barcelona due to injury Getty Images
Soccer belongs to the soccer players. It is a phrase coined but without a specific author that has earned its space over the years and that today causes professional footballers, those at the top level both in sports and in the media, to be close to a plant.
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Tired of clubs, national federations and international organizations squeezing them with more games each season, less rest, fewer vacations and more injuries, they are saying enough is enough. He hinted at it Rodri on September 17… And five days later he suffered a tear in the cruciate ligament in his right knee that took him to the operating room to leave him out of competition until the end of the season.
The Spanish midfielder played 60 games during the 2023-24 season, which were 67 between his club, Manchester City, and the Spanish team. A rhythm, he warned, “that worries us”, referring to the players and in a speech that found support from professional colleagues such as Jules KoundéRodrigo de Paul, Thibaut Courtois, José María Giménez or even the veteran Sergio Busquets.
NO REST
Since the official season began and after the second international break, 10 full days of LaLiga have been played in Spain, and the footballers of the main clubs will add three Champions League dates and another two national team matches.
Up to 15 games between eight and nine weeks, about 67 days… Which means an approximate average of one game every four days, with what this means in terms of fewer training sessions, fewer days of rest and the corresponding trips.
The national leagues are played, the international club competitions, the national Cups and Super Cups (which are carried thousands of kilometers away, as in the case of the Hispaniola that is played in Arabia), the League Cup in England… And then the national teams, who after playing in the World Cup and Euro Cup have added the Nations League to continue adding to a crazy schedule.
Until madness was reached, in the opinion of the footballers, with the birth of the Club World Cup, which goes one step further, with the participation of 32 teams in a month-long tournament that will debut in the United States in 2025. A new flood of millions for the clubs, to be able to face multimillion-dollar payments to their stars… Although there are not a few who have already raised their voices. Because they can’t take it anymore and they are falling.
And this workload, as the season goes by, only increases and causes there to be players who finish the course having even surpassed 70 games, as happened to Pedri in 2021, linking at the end of the campaign with Barça the Euro Cup with the senior team and the Tokyo Olympic Games afterwards… Something that was repeated this year with Fermin Lopez.
And Pedri paid for it in 2021 as Fermín has paid for it in 2024, with injuries of more or less significance due to lack of rest, vacation, which ends up causing muscle problems… If not more serious injuries that have multiplied in recent times .
FRACTURE FASHION
Cruciate ligament rupture. This is as serious an injury as it has become as common as of late. Rodri suffered it with Manchester City, Lucas Hernandez of Paris Saint-Germain, Marc Bernal in Barcelona, Giorgio Scalvini y Gianluca Scamacca del Atalanta, Josip Stanic del Bayern Munich, Sergiño Dest part PSV Eindhoven o Xavier Schlager del RB Leipzig.
Real Madrid player David Alava and Barcelona player use their recovery from injuries of this category. Gaviwhose position in the infirmary will be occupied in the coming months by Marc-André ter Stegenwho suffers from a rupture of the patellar tendon in his right knee.
Brahim Diaz y Ronald Araújo, Carvalho,Kevin de Bruyne, Chad RiadBoy, Lewis FergusonMoumbagna, Moffi, Santiago Gimenez, Nicolò BarellaIto… The collection of players affected by injuries is increasingly extensive and worrying. And that is without taking into account possible relapses due to the urgency of recoveries.
DECISIONS?
The footballers suggest that the limit is being reached and threaten with a strike to which we will have to see (if it occurs) how the clubs and federations respond. And the fans, of course…
But it is beginning to be suspected that it is time to make decisions and even more so given that from October 20 to December 22, when he stops for Christmas, a Barça or Real Madrid footballer can play up to 16 games in nine weeks. , which will be, again, an approximate average of one match every 3.9 days.
For a team like Barcelona it is, without a doubt, detrimental. The charge comes at a perhaps not decisive, but crucial moment of the season. Today they face Bayern Munich and on Saturday Real Madrid in the Clásico that could set the course for LaLiga.
