Chapter 203 Pintus’ Devil Training Method

Antonio Pintus, a 50-year-old Italian fitness coach, currently works for the Serie A team Palermo.

In the early days of his career, he also played for big clubs such as Juventus, Chelsea, Monaco, and Marseille, but he really became widely known when he joined Real Madrid and Inter Milan.

In the summer of 2016, Zidane invited Pintus to serve as Real Madrid's fitness coach.

Pintus was very strict with players' physical reserve training during the pre-season training phase, and this played a decisive role in Zidane's rotation policy during the season and his efforts later in the season to win La Liga and defend the Champions League.

At the same time, Pintus has established a trusting relationship with the players during the training process, and his professionalism has also won the love of all players in the club.

In the documentary "Heart of the Twelve Champions League" about Real Madrid winning their 12th Champions League, the old King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, personally entered the locker room to thank Pintus, which also proves that everyone knows about the existence of this physical coach.

An improvement over Real Madrid.

After Zidane left Real Madrid, Pintus was also invited to Inter Milan. Then he won the Serie A championship with Inter Milan and won the Serie A Best Physical Coach Award.

In 2021, he returned to Real Madrid to assist Ancelotti.

During this period, he won the Champions League and La Liga double with Real Madrid.

This time, Pintus's devil training was also more scientific.

He designed different training and recovery methods, including strict work and rest schedules, eating habits, detailed running and sprinting, scientific body function analysis, etc.

These methods have rejuvenated the veterans in the team, such as Modric, Benzema, Kroos and others who are all in their 30s.

They can run all over the field and gallop at the last moment of the game. Benzema even played the best Ballon d'Or-level performance in his football career.

Real Madrid, which can fight tough battles and is good at playing against the wind, has an interesting statistic after eight consecutive wins at the beginning of the 22-23 season:

Their goal-goal ratio in the first half was 6-5, and their goal-goal ratio in the second half was 16-0!

You can’t afford to offend Real Madrid in the second half, and you can’t afford to offend Real Madrid in the last 20 minutes!

When their opponents are exhausted, Real Madrid can still sprint at full speed.

These changes were brought about by the physical fitness coach Pintus, the hero behind the scenes.

It can be said that Pintus is the most famous physical coach in the football world.

But now, he is still living in a small team like Palermo. Of course, Pan Yi has to find a way to pry him off.

…

Whether you can successfully recruit people in the workplace depends on two things.

One is money, and the other is career prospects. Specifically in the football world, it is whether you can win honors.

After Pan Yi went to Italy to meet Pintus, he quickly started working on these two aspects, making Pintus interested in joining Hamburg in the shortest possible time.

First is money.

In football, in most cases the players earn the most, followed by the head coach, assistant coach, chief scout, chief team doctor, etc. The salary of physical coaches is not high.

Taking the current structure of the Hamburg team as an example, the weekly salary of head coach Pan Yi is about 20,000 euros, while the two assistant coaches Inzaghi and Nagelsmann only earn 5,000 to 6,000 euros.

This is of course because they are still considered rookie coaches, but even so, their salaries are similar to those of the team's chief scout and chief physician.

Hamburg's current physical coach's weekly salary is 2,500 euros, which is very low, not even as good as some ordinary team doctors and scouts in the team.

In fact, if you open the game FM2013 now, find Pintus, an excellent coach with a "physical training 20" value, and propose a contract for him, the salary he proposed is only 2,000 euros per week.

This is also his current weekly salary in Palermo.

So Pan Yi came up and offered Pintus a price he couldn't refuse: a weekly salary of 4,000 euros.

That is, doubled.

What does 4,000 euros/week mean?

In the 2013 Bundesliga, only giant clubs like Bayern and Dortmund were likely to offer such a price.

In other words, this is already the highest salary among all physical coaches in the football world - when Pan Yi was an assistant coach at AC Milan, his salary was almost the same.

Therefore, Pintus quickly felt the sincerity from Pan Yi.

He began to realize that this young coach of the Dragon Kingdom came all the way to Italy not to have a casual chat with an old bald man like him, but because he was determined to win.

This also made him feel valued.

Pintus began to ask for information about Hamburg and wanted to know the club's plans.

For a coach at his level, it is important to go to a club to make money and support his family, but whether he can gain a sense of professional fulfillment and whether he can progress with the team and win trophies are also important considerations.

At this time, Pan Yi's advantage showed again.

The Palermo team that Pintus currently plays for is ranked second from last in the Serie A standings after 18 rounds with 3 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses and 15 points.

Hamburg, on the other hand, is second only to Bayern in the Bundesliga standings!

The second from the top versus the second from the bottom, a decisive decision.

And Pan Yi is now a hot young coach in European football.

He made a name for himself in Italian football when he was an assistant coach in Milan, and now he has brought Hamburg, a relegation team, to such a height that he is even more famous.

For Pintus, he doesn’t know whether it’s appropriate to go to Hamburg, but following Pan Yi is definitely a very promising prospect!

After he learned that Pan Yi was almost equivalent to a football director in Hamburg, able to support all the coach's ideas for training and provide corresponding equipment, his eyes shone with a strange light.

This is what he has dreamed of too!

He is now in Palermo, because of delays in applying for some electronic equipment, which has prevented him from actually realizing his training plan, and he is feeling angry.

This time, Pan Yi gave him a pillow so that he could realize this dream comfortably.

In the following chat, Pintus realized that although the young coach in front of him was not a professional physical fitness coach, he also had his own insights into the role of physical fitness in modern football matches.

"Without excellent physical support, the players' technical movements and the team's passing and running coordination are impossible. My team needs my players to have sufficient physical fitness."

"Two teams with similar competitive levels, what separates them at the last moment is their physical fitness. The team that rushes forward is often the winner."

"When masters compete, details determine success or failure, and physical fitness is also an important part of it. If it is a confrontation between two teams that focus on pressure and confrontation, then as long as one of the teams cannot maintain high-intensity pressure for 90 minutes and relaxes for a moment, they will fail.

Right in front of you.”

Pan Yi said it very firmly, and this is exactly what Pintus thinks.

This made Pintus feel like he had met a confidant, and his eyes looking at Pan Yi also added a hint of yearning.

Then Pan Yi chatted with Pintus about his specific responsibilities, and Pintus naturally talked about some of his ideas, as if it was already a small discussion meeting among the Hamburg coaching staff.

For example, after Pintus arrives, he will be responsible for all the team's basic physical training and develop targeted intensive training based on the players' court positions and technical characteristics.

At the same time, he also has to work with the team's technical coaches, masseurs, rehabilitation physiotherapists and analysts to study and track the players' physical condition, adjust training load and training programs at any time, so that players can improve every game.

Stay in top shape.

Training must be scientific, not mindless training, so as to avoid unnecessary injuries as much as possible and allow more players to be active on the court.

Attrition is also a problem that a football team often faces during a long season.

Especially for a small club, performance will quickly decline once injuries occur.

And obviously, Pintus has great experience in this.

He talked endlessly about his training plan and even began to estimate the amount of training required to have sufficient physical reserves based on the Bundesliga schedule.

"The first game after the winter break was played on January 20th? Gee, the Bundesliga is really fun. That's no problem for me at all."

"The past three weeks are enough! I only need three or four days to find out the basic situation of the players in the team, and then combine it with the coaching staff's winter break training plan to come up with an intensive training plan and a targeted training plan.

.”

"As long as the players cooperate...they will cooperate, right?"

After receiving Pan Yi's affirmative answer, Pintus nodded confidently:

"Then, as long as my training plan is implemented in place, our players will quickly enter the best physical condition after the restart in the second half of the season, and they can continue to be in this state until the end of the season!"

Pan Yi noticed that Pintus was already saying "we" at this time.

He also knew that his attempt to gain leverage had achieved complete victory!

"This season is just a small test for us in the Bundesliga." Pan Yi said seriously, "And next season, our goal is the Bundesliga championship!"

If this sentence were used in an ordinary workplace, it would be a kind of "painting" behavior, but what Pan Yi said to Pintus now was his true thoughts.

This is also the honor Pintus longs for as a football coach!

Hearing this sentence, Pintus was a little surprised at first.

Of course he knows how powerful Bayern Munich is now.

Even the defending champion Dortmund is not a vegetarian.

Hamburg was still a relegation team last season, but next season they want to challenge Bayern and Dortmund in the Bundesliga?

But when he saw the look in Pan Yi's eyes, he knew that this young head coach was definitely not just talking.

Thinking about the current Hamburg team, who would dare to say that they are just a team fighting for relegation?

They have been in the Champions League for a long time in the league and even defeated Bayern and Dortmund.

Pan Yi shouted the slogan of winning the championship, but he was actually confident!

Thinking of this, Pintus was filled with pride and he patted his chest:

"No problem, I will definitely do my best to support the team and let us realize this dream together!"

Pan Yi reached out at the right time and held Pintus's hands tightly:

"Then, you are welcome to become a member of the Hamburg coaching staff and a member of the future championship team!"

…

January 3, 2013.

The day when the Hamburg Club regroups.

When everyone gathered at the training ground, Pan Yi first introduced the three new players introduced in the winter window: Robertson, Paulinho and Pintus.
To be continued...