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.
Then, all the work began to be carried out in an orderly manner.
Inzaghi first took the players to do some simple recovery training, while Nagelsmann provided Pintus with various data and information collected in previous training and games.
When Pintus saw the detailed information in front of him, his eyes were brighter than his bald head.
"So professional! It turns out that you are already using various smart devices to monitor player data?" Pintus sighed, "Then I really came to the right place. My scientific training method has finally been put to real use.
It’s over!”
With these data reports, Pintus can of course get twice the result with half the effort in understanding the situation of Hamburg players.
In fact, it only took him two days to figure out the general physical condition of all the first-team players.
Then, he began to divide the players into multiple different groups based on their differences in position, role, and tactical role, and develop different training plans for each group.
On the fourth day, Hamburg's players began to "enjoy" the devilish training brought by the world's number one physical fitness coach.
Because no matter what group they are in, no matter what kind of training plan they are, most of their differences are in some differences in training methods, but they all have one thing in common: the training volume is super large!
What is the concept of this big thing?
For example, the most physically fit player on the team is captain Westerman, and he can't even stand it.
The physical training Pintus arranged for him today was something called "hypoxic mask training method".
The mask has an air intake regulator that measures heart rate, pulse per minute, each player's aerobic capacity at peak performance, and more.
The material of the design mask is neoprene, which can be adjusted according to the athlete's head, absorbs sweat and is easy to clean.
Its fixing is also very simple, just tie it with Velcro on the back - of course, in the future, a tablet can be placed on the back to display data more conveniently, but it is not so advanced at this time.
Pan Yi had already purchased these equipment according to Pintus' needs before he officially joined Hamburg.
Specifically, during the test, the players were asked to run back and forth at high speed until the requirements were met.
This is a method of simulating high-intensity matches that push players to their physical limits to assess each player's physical performance.
But Westermann was already out of breath before he had even run a few times.
"This... this training is too outrageous, it's impossible to complete!" Westerman waved his hands heavily and complained.
"Really?" Pintus smiled, then began to put the equipment on his body, and then began to sprint with all his strength.
One round trip, two round trips, three...
Everyone was dumbfounded.
This is a fifty-year-old man!
Is it really possible?
It seems that to this lunatic-like physical coach, you really can't say anything like "you can do it"...
Because he is really good and really good!
As a result, Westerman had nothing to say, and all the players were convinced and obediently trained according to the plan formulated by Pintus.
We are all professional players in their twenties, so there is no reason why we should lose to a little old man, right?
And as the days passed, everyone admired Pintus even more.
He is very "cruel" to his players, even to himself.
Every morning Pintus would arrive at the Hamburg training ground a little early, park his car and start running around the streets of the training ground.
The distance of this circle is approximately 9 kilometers.
In other words, he had to run these 9 kilometers every day before starting to "torture" the Hamburg players.
In daily physical training, Pintus has always instilled into the players the concept of "strong dialogue, the one who can run wins", and gradually increased the training intensity based on the players' current physical reserves.
At the beginning, everyone was a little uncomfortable, and some even practiced until they shed tears and vomited - such as Wu Lei, Lin Zhijian and others who have physical difficulties.
However, everyone persisted in the end!
Because everyone gradually began to believe that this physical fitness coach Pan Yi had specially recruited from Italy had something up his sleeve!
After all, you know your own body best. After this period of time, everyone obviously feels that good changes are happening!
Of course, they had no way to express their dissatisfaction with Pintus.
Because this bald old man always leads by example and always runs first in the team!
As for Pan Yi, he has never been too involved in the team's daily training. Of course, Pintus, whom he trusts the most, is allowed to do it.
Pan Yi knew that this would be a process that was bitter first and then sweet.
The physical reserves in the early stage will definitely be very difficult; but in the middle and late stages of the season, Pintus' devilish training method will make Hamburg burst out with powerful energy!
Just like Pan Yi's previous life from 2016 to 2018, Pintus trained Real Madrid stars until they cried and vomited. However, after hard training, running ability was enhanced and muscle injuries were reduced.
After hard training, the physical fitness of the Real Madrid team has greatly improved, and they have become one of the teams with the best running ability and the fewest muscle injuries in Europe.
In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, Real Madrid, which had constant reversals and was addicted to winning matches, also won consecutive Champions League titles.
After Pintus left Real Madrid to join Inter Milan, Inter Milan immediately became the team with the fewest muscle injuries in Serie A and the most points in the second half.
Abundant physical fitness is the cornerstone for Inter Milan to win the Serie A championship in the 2020-21 season.
So Pan Yi has reason to believe that Hamburg will become such a tough team under Pintus' devilish training!
Of course, Pan Yi himself was a little lucky.
That is, after traveling through time, he became a coach, not a player.
He doesn't want to be like those poor players who are tortured to the point of spitting out their tongues and exhausted every day...
…
Almost 10 days later, Hamburg ushered in a warm-up match at home against the Austrian team Vienna.
The opponent was not strong, but Hamburg performed well. In the end, Sun Xingmin and Wu Lei scored a goal in the first and second half to defeat the opponent 2:0.
This victory is nothing, and Pan Yi won't take it seriously.
But what pleased Pan Yi was that Wu Lei was obviously in good physical condition in this game. He started and played the entire game, and the goal was scored after 85 minutes by a long-distance traveler.
This fully shows that Pintus' physical training has had a positive effect.
In this warm-up match, Pan Yi also asked new players Robertson and Paulinho to play for half a game each to run in with their teammates in actual combat.
Pan Yi was also satisfied with the result.
Especially Paulinho, he seems to be able to plug and play and quickly integrated into Hamburg's tactical system.
When partnering with Casemiro as a defensive midfielder, the two cooperated very well, and their defense was flawless. Paulinho even used a forward opportunity to send a through ball, assisting Son Heung-min to score a shot.
Robertson, perhaps because he is still relatively young, seems a bit reserved on the court.
But he still showed strong running ability, fast speed, and stable passing. He was also meticulous in defense and could complete the tasks assigned to him by the coach.
The abilities of the two new players were quickly recognized by their teammates. During this time, everyone has become close, like they have been friends for many years.
After the game, Pintus readjusted the training plan based on the players' physical consumption during the game.
This physical training master is like this. He will make fine adjustments at any time according to the actual situation. After all, training, competition, and recovery are all indispensable.
Then through constant adjustments like this, the team's overall condition will slowly reach its peak.
Pan Yi understands that the ups and downs of players' status are objective and cannot be changed.
The coaching staff, including the physical coach, is to adjust the players' condition as much as possible on the premise of following the objective laws of the human body, or in other words, to allow good conditions to appear in the game.
Now with Pintus, it is obvious that such a goal is easier to achieve.
…
During this period of training and warm-up matches, Hamburg also received some formal offers for players on the team.
Not only against main players such as De Bruyne and Son Heung-min who performed well.
Players like Janssen and Mancion who currently have relatively few playing opportunities in the Hamburg team have also been put forward by some teams for trade demands.
But Pan Yi rejected them all and only agreed to loan midfielder Tescher to Dusseldorf.
This is mainly because the current defensive midfielder position is indeed a bit overstaffed. Hasebe Makoto, Jacopo Sala, Shelbrae, including captain Westerman are all ahead of him in the starting order. Teshe is really playing
Not available.
But Pan Yi still didn't sell him, and even added a clause that could terminate the lease at any time.
Although Hamburg's current lineup has improved in thickness, it is not yet rich enough to let people go at will.
25 first-team players is a lot less, but it’s really not a lot.
At the end of the season, if there is any injury or shortage of players, the coach will be in pain.
So just in case, Pan Yi didn't sell anyone.
When the season ends and the summer transfer window opens, Pan Yi can replenish his staff in the transfer market and then consider trading out some players who cannot play. This will be good for all parties.
Now, Pan Yi spends more time preparing for war.
That's because the second half of the Bundesliga season is about to begin!