Since August, footballers from big clubs can play more than 15 games in two months, a load that leaves injuries and many complaints
BARCELONA — High level footballer, Hugo Sánchez, played 54 games for Real Madrid in the 1986-87 season and Gary Lineker, in the same season, achieved 56 games between Barça and the English team. In the 2023-24 season Federico Valverde reached 65 between Real Madrid and Uruguay, and Lamin Yamal he stayed at 64 with the Barcelona and Spain.
More trips, more meetings, more games, more competitions… More of everything and less holidays and less rest. and some calendars that will be loaded more in the near future. and the players already at the limit. Of his body and his patience. he problem It is not exclusive to your team, but it affects one more like the Barcelona.
Ter Stegen is one of the tough casualties for Barcelona due to injury Getty Images
Soccer is about the soccer players. It is a phrase that has been kept but without a specific author that has earned its space over the years and that today causes professional footballers, those at the highest level in sports and in the media, to be close to a plant.
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Tired of clubs, national federations and international organizations pushing them with more games every season, less rest, less holidays and more injuries, they say 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, that’s 67 between his club, Manchester City, and the Spanish team. I run, he warned, “which worries us”, referring to the players and in a speech that received support from professional colleagues such as Jules KoundéRodrigo de Paul, Thibaut Courtois, José María Giménez or even the veteran Sergio Busquets.
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THE PART IS NOT
Since the start of the official season 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 dates of the Champions League and two more national matches of the team.
Up to 15 games between eight and nine weeks, about 67 days… Which means an average of one game every four days, which means in terms of fewer training sessions, fewer rest days and the corresponding trips.
The national leagues are played, the international competitions of the clubs, the national Cups and the Super Cups (which are carried thousands of kilometers away, as in the case of the Hispaniola which is played in Arabia), the League Cup in England… And then the national teams, who have played in the World Cup and the Euro Cup have added the League of Nations to continue adding to a crazy schedule.
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Until the madness, according to the footballers, was reached 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 first take place in the United States in 2025. A new flood of millions for the clubs, to be able to face the multi-million-dollar payments of their stars… Although some have not already raised their voice. Because they can’t take it anymore and they’re falling.
And this workload does not increase, as the season goes by, causing players who complete the course to have even exceeded 70 games, as happened to. Paddy in 2021, linking up at the end of the campaign with Barça the Euro Cup with the senior team and the Tokyo Olympics afterwards… Something that was repeated this year with Fermin Lopez.
And Pedri paid for it in 2021 as Fermín paid for it in 2024, with injuries that are more or less important due to lack of rest, holidays, which end up causing muscle problems… If there are no injuries more serious which has increased in recent times.
FRACTURE Fashion
cruciate ligament rupture. This is such a serious injury that it has become so common recently. Rodri endured it with Manchester City, Lucas Hernandez of Paris Saint-Germain, Mark Bernal in Barcelona, Giorgio Scalvini y Gianluca Scamacca del Atalanta, Josip Stanic del Bayern Munich, Sergiño Dest part of PSV Eindhoven o Xavier Schlager of RB Leipzig.
Real Madrid player David Alava and Barcelona player use their recoveries from injuries of this category. Gaviwhose position in the infirmary will be occupied in the coming months by Marc-André ter Stegenwho is suffering from a rupture of the patellar tendon in his right knee.
Brahim Diaz y Ronald Araújo, CarvalhoKevin de Bruyne, Chad Riadboy, Lewis FergusonMumbagna, Moffi, Santiago Gimenez, Nicolò BarellaIto… The collection of players affected by injuries is becoming more extensive and more worrying. And that is without taking into account possible relapses due to the urgency of the recoveries.
DECISIONS?
The footballers indicate that the limit is being reached and a strike is threatened which we will have to see (if it happens) 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 considering that a Barça or Real Madrid footballer can play up to 16 games in nine weeks from October 20 to December 22, when it stops for Christmas. which, again, will be about an average of one game every 3.9 days.
It is harmful, without a doubt, for a team like Barcelona. The charge comes at a perhaps not decisive, but crucial time of the season. Today they face Bayern Munich and on Saturday Real Madrid in the Clásico that could set the course for LaLiga.