The leader’s rules

Behind the spectacular performance that the Real has offered in these almost three months that we have been consumed in season, there is a lot of daily work. Not only that of this campaign under the orders of Imanol. It has been a decade since the txuri urdin club focused its training method towards a more comprehensive preparation, towards a working day in which footballers spend many more hours than those they dedicate exclusively to exercising on the pitch. Zubieta is a training center of reference in the world of football and, in the same way that there is exhaustive control over all the base players who train daily, the first team is governed based on a methodical daily protocol that is part of the successful period the club is going through. They are the norms of the leader.

When Xavi Hernandez, new coach of the Barcelona, announced as one of the axes of its ideology the implantation of a series of norms in the wardrobe blaugrana, a Imanol it would inevitably provoke a smile. The working method by which the Catalan club intends to abide in this new era has been in operation for years at the Real, whose footballers, and more the new generations, do not know the old habits of getting to train shortly before the start of the session and stampede minutes after going through the shower at the conclusion of it. Today’s professional must be so almost 24 hours a day and that includes a working day with obligations that go beyond working with the ball.

The arrival of Philippe Montanier on 2011 accelerated an idea that the txuri urdin club already had in mind since the return to Primera in 2010 and that summer the dining room for the first team was built, without which today it would not be possible to understand a day in Zubieta, as well as the rooms for footballers who are not taking advantage of too much right now as there are no double sessions.

The scale, an obsession

Building a common lunch spot means more than just making life more comfortable for the gamer. With the dining room came the cook, Johnny Porto, and later the figure of the nutritionist, currently Virginia Santesteban. The dining room has become one more link in the work chain. There, the staff have breakfast and lunch daily the balanced and rich menus prepared by Johnny and Virginia which, obviously, contribute to the professional does not accumulate a gram of fat more than necessary. And it is that weight and fat are two of the obsessions of today’s technicians. The daily step on the scale as soon as you get to Zubieta It is mandatory and the financial fines for exceeding the established parameters are severe.

Prevention work in the gym prior to training and the subsequent one, which includes passing through the gym again, the cold water pools or the massages of the physios, are mandatory for a team that will conclude the day with lunch. after spending between five and six hours in Zubieta. A dedication that, together with the technical quality of the team, is bearing the best results in history.