Antonio Pintus, 50-year-old Italian strength and conditioning coach, currently plays for Palermo in Serie A.

At the beginning of his career, he played for big clubs such as Juventus, Chelsea, Monaco and Marseille, but it was when he joined Real Madrid and Inter that he really became known.

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

Pintus was strict with his players' fitness training in the pre-season training phase, and this played a decisive role in Zidane's rotation policy during the season, as well as his efforts to win La Liga and defend the Champions League in the latter stages.

At the same time, Pintus has built a relationship of mutual trust with the players during the training process, and his professionalism has won the affection of all the players at the club.

In the documentary "Heart of the Twelve", which won Real Madrid's 12th Champions League, the old Spanish king Juan Carlos I personally entered the dressing room to thank Pintus, which also proves that everyone knows that the presence of this fitness coach has improved Real Madrid.

After Zidane left Real Madrid, Pintus was also invited to Inter Milan, where he won the Serie A title with Inter Milan and won the Serie A Best Fitness Coach award.

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

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

This time, Pintus' devil training is also more scientific.

He has designed different training and recovery methods, including strict work and rest time, eating habits, detailed running and sprinting, scientific physical function analysis, and so on.

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 pitch, they can gallop in the final moments of the game, and Benzema has the best Ballon d'Or performance of his career.

Real Madrid, who can play tough battles and are good at playing against the wind, has an interesting statistic after eight consecutive wins at the start of the 22-23 season:

They had a 6-5 goal difference in the first half and a 16-0 goal difference in the second half!

Real Madrid in the second half can't be provoked, and Real Madrid in the last 20 minutes can't be provoked!

When the opponent is exhausted, Real Madrid can still sprint at full speed.

These changes are brought about by the strength and conditioning coach Pintus, the hero behind the scenes.

It can be said that Pintus is the most famous strength and conditioning coach in the world of football.

And now, he is still living in a small team like Palermo, of course Pan Yi has to find a way to pry it.

……

Whether or not the workplace poaching can succeed is nothing more than two points.

One is money, the other is career prospects, and specifically in the football world, is whether you can get honors.

After Pan Yi went to Italy to meet Pintus, he started on both aspects very quickly, so that Pintus became interested in joining Hamburg in the shortest possible time.

The first is money.

In football, in most cases, the players who earn the most money, then the head coach, assistant coach, chief scout, chief team doctor, etc., and the salary of the physical coach 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 are only 5 or 6,000 euros.

This is of course because they are still rookie coaches, but in this way, they are still about the same salary as the team's chief scout and chief team doctor.

Hamburg's current strength and conditioning coach is paid 2,500 euros a week, which is very low, and even less than some ordinary team doctors and scouts in the team.

In fact, if you open the FM2013 game now, find Pintus, a good coach with a "Fitness 20" value, and propose a contract for him, he will only propose a salary of 2,000 euros per week.

That's what he earns now in Palermo.

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

That is, doubled.

What is the concept of 4,000 euros/week?

In the 2013 Bundesliga, probably only giants like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were likely to offer such a price.

In other words, this is already the most valuable of all the physical coaches in the football world - it is said that when Pan Yi was an assistant coach at AC Milan, it was almost this salary.

Therefore, Pintus soon felt the sincerity from Pan Yi.

He began to realize that this young dragon coach had come all the way to Italy, not to talk casually with him, a bald old man, but to win.

It also made him feel valued.

Pintus began to ask for information about Hamburg and wanted to know what the club was planning.

For a coach of his level, it is important to go to a club to earn money to support his family, but whether he can achieve a sense of professional fulfillment, whether he can improve with the team and win trophies is also an important criterion.

At this time, Pan Yi's advantages were once again reflected.

The Palermo team that Pintus now plays for is in the penultimate place in the standings with 15 points from 3 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses in 18 rounds of Serie A.

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

The second positive pair is the second to the second, and the judgment is made.

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

He made a name for himself in Italian football during his time as an assistant coach at Milan, and now he has taken Hamburg's relegation side to such heights, and he has made a name for himself.

For Pintus, he doesn't know if it's appropriate to go to Hamburg, but with Pan Yi, it's definitely very promising!

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

This is what he has always dreamed of!

He is now in Palermo, because of the procrastination on the application of some electronic devices, he has not been able to really realize his training plan, and he is angry.

Now it's okay, Pan Yi sent a pillow, which can allow him to complete this dream comfortably.

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

"Without excellent physical support, the technical movements of the players and the team's passing and running coordination would not be possible. My team needs my players to be fit. ”

"Two teams with a similar level of competition, the difference between them at the last moment is physical, and the team that rushes up is often the winner."

"The details determine success or failure, and physical fitness is also an important part of it. If it's two teams that focus on pressing and confrontation, then if one of them can't maintain the high intensity of the press for 90 minutes, the slightest relaxation will be imminent. ”

Pan Yi is very sure, and this is exactly Pintus's opinion.

This made Pintus's heart feel like he had met a confidant, and there was a hint of yearning in his eyes when he looked at Pan Yi.

Pan Yi then 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 with the Hamburg coaching staff.

For example, when Pintus arrives, he will be responsible for all the team's basic physical training, and develop targeted intensive training according to the player's position on the pitch and technical characteristics.

At the same time, he also has to work with the team's technical coaches, masseurs, rehabilitation therapists and analysts to study and track the physical condition of the players, adjust the training load and training program at any time, so that the players can keep themselves in the best condition every game.

Training must be scientific, not brainless, so that unnecessary injuries can also be avoided as much as possible, so that more players can be active on the field.

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

Especially in a small club, as soon as an injury occurs, the results will drop rapidly.

And obviously, Pintus knows a thing or two about it.

He talks about his training regimen and has even begun to estimate how much training he needs to be based on the Bundesliga schedule to have enough fitness.

"Playing the first game after the winter break on January 20th? Tsk, the Bundesliga is so cool. That's not a problem for me at all. ”

"Nearly three weeks, that's enough! I only need three or four days to find out the basic situation of the players in the team, and then I can give an intensive training plan and a specific training plan in combination with the training plan of the coaching staff during the winter break. ”

"As long as the players cooperate...... They'll cooperate, right? ”

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

"So, as long as my training plan is in place, our players will be in the best physical condition very quickly when they start playing in the second half of the season and will be able to continue to do so until the end of the season!"

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

He also knew that his operation had achieved complete victory!

"This season is just a little bit of a test for us in the Bundesliga." Pan Yi said, "And next season, our goal is to win the Bundesliga!" ”

If this sentence is a kind of "pie painting" behavior in the ordinary workplace, what Pan Yi is telling Pintus now is his true thoughts.

This is also the honor that Pintus craves as a football coach!

Hearing this, Pintus was a little surprised at first.

He certainly knows how strong Bayern Munich is right now.

Including defending champions Borussia Dortmund are not vegetarians either.

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

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

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

They have remained in the Champions League for a long time in the league and have even beaten Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

Pan Yi shouted the slogan of winning the championship, which is actually confident!

Thinking about it this way, Pintuston was also full of pride in his heart, and he patted his chest:

"No problem, I will definitely do my best to support the team and let's make this dream come true together!"

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

"Well, welcome to be part of the Hamburg coaching staff and welcome to be part of the future championship team!"

……

January 3, 2013.

The day of the reunion of the Hamburg club.

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

Then, the work began to be carried out in an orderly manner.

Inzaghi took the players to some simple recovery training first, while Nagelsmann provided Pintus with all the data and data collected in previous training and games.

Pintus's eyes widened brighter than his bald head when he saw the detailed information in front of him.

"So professional! It turns out that you have already used various smart devices to monitor player data? Pintus exclaimed, "Then I've come to the right place." My scientific training method is finally truly useful! ”

And with these data reports, Pintus is of course able to understand the situation of the Hamburg players.

In fact, it only took him two days to find out the approximate physical condition of almost all the first-team players.

He then began to divide the players into different groups based on their position, role and tactical role, and developed a different training plan for each group.

On the fourth day, the Hamburg players began to "enjoy" the devil's training brought by the world's number one fitness coach.

Because no matter what kind of group, no matter what kind of training plan, most of the differences between them are some differences in training methods, but they all have one thing in common: that is, the training volume is super large!

What is the concept of this big?

For example, the best physical player in the team is the captain Westerman, who can't stand it.

The physical training that Pintus arranged for him today is a kind of stuff called the "hypoxic mask training method".

The mask has an air intake regulator that measures heart rate, pulse per minute, aerobic capacity of each player at peak performance, and more.

The design mask is made of neoprene, which can be adjusted to the athlete's head, absorbs sweat and is easy to clean.

It's also very easy to fix, just tie it with Velcro on the back - of course, in the future, you can also put a tablet on the back to display data more conveniently, but this time is not so advanced for the time being.

And these equipment were all purchased according to his needs when Pintus had not officially joined Hamburg.

Specifically, during the test, the players were asked to run back and forth at high speed until they reached the requirements.

It is a method of simulating a high-intensity game that allows players to reach their physical limits in order to assess the physical performance of each player.

But Westerman hadn't been running back and forth for a few rounds before he was out of breath.

"This ...... This training is outrageous, it is impossible to complete! Westman waved his hand heavily and grumbled.

"Really?" Pintus smiled, but began to put the device on his body as well, and began to sprint with all his might.

One back and forth, two back and forth, three ......

Everyone looked stupid.

This is a fifty-year-old man!

Can it really be?

It seems that for this crazy physical trainer, he really can't say anything "you can do it"......

Because he really can, really on!

As a result, Westerman had nothing to say, and all the players obeyed, obediently training according to the plan set by Pintus.

Everyone is a professional player in their twenties, so there's no reason to lose to a little old man, right?

And as the days passed, everyone admired Pintus even more.

He was very "ruthless" to the players, even himself.

Every morning, Pintus arrives at the Hamburg training ground a little early, parks his car and starts running around the streets of the training ground.

And the distance of this lap is about 9 kilometers.

That is, he had to run these 9 kilometers every day before he began to "torture" the Hamburg players.

In the usual physical training, Pintus has also been instilling the concept of "strong dialogue, runner wins" to the players, and gradually increase the training intensity according to the current physical reserve of the players.

At first, everyone was a little uncomfortable, and some people even practiced until they cried and vomited - such as Hu Wulei, Lin Zhijian and others with physical difficulties.

However, everyone persevered in the end!

Because everyone gradually began to believe that the physical trainer that Pan Yi specially dug from Italy has something!

After all, my body knows best, and after a period of time, everyone obviously feels that good changes are happening!

Of course, there was no way for them to express any grievances against Pintus.

Because, this bald old man always leads by example and always runs first in the team!

As for Pan Yi, he has never interfered too much in the team's daily training, and for Pintus, who he trusts the most, of course, he also lets him do it.

Pan Yi knows that this will be a bitter and then sweet process.

The physical reserve in the early stage is bound to be very difficult; But in the middle and late stages of the season, Pintus' devilish training method will make Hamburg burst with powerful energy!

Just like Pan Yi's previous life in 2016-2018, Pintus trained the Real Madrid stars until they cried and vomited, but after hard training, it was the enhancement of running ability and the reduction of muscle injuries.

After hard training, Real Madrid's team has improved their fitness and become one of the most capable teams in Europe with the fewest muscle injuries.

In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, Real Madrid, who were addicted to reversals and kills, also won the Champions League in a row.

After Pintus left Real Madrid to join Inter, Inter immediately became the team with the fewest muscle injuries in Serie A and the most points in the second half.

Abundant fitness is the cornerstone of Inter's 2020-21 Serie A title.

Therefore, Pan Yi has reason to believe that Hamburg will also become such a tenacious division under the devil training of Pintus!

Of course, Pan Yi himself is a little lucky.

It's that he crossed over and became a coach, not a player.

He didn't want to be like those poor players, who were tortured every day to stick out their tongues and burn out......

……

Almost 10 days later, Hamburg had a warm-up match at home against Austrian Vienna.

The opponent was not strong, and Hamburg played well, and finally defeated the opponent 2:0 with one goal each from Son Xingmin and Wu Lei in the first and second halves.

This victory is nothing, and Pan Yi will not take it to heart.

But to Pan Yi's delight, Wu Lei's physical condition in this game was obviously very good, he started the whole game, and that goal was also scored by a long-distance run after 85 minutes.

This is a good indication that Pintus' physical training is already having a positive effect.

In this warm-up game, Pan Yi also let new signings Robertson and Paulinho play half of each game to run in with their teammates in actual combat.

The results also made Pan Yi satisfied.

Paulinho, in particular, seemed to be plug-and-play and quickly integrated into Hamburg's tactical system.

In the process of partnering Casemiro in the back, the two worked together very well, and the defense was not leaky, Paulinho even used a forward opportunity to send a through plug to assist Son Xingmin's powerful shot.

And Robertson may be because he is still relatively young, and he seems a little reserved on the court.

But he still showed the characteristics of strong running ability, fast speed, steady crossing, and meticulous defense to complete the tasks assigned to him by the coach.

The abilities of the two new players were quickly recognized by their teammates, and everyone has been together for a while, like friends for many years.

After the game, Pintus readjusted the training plan according to the physical consumption of the players in the game.

This master of physical training is like this, he will fine-tune it according to the actual situation at any time, after all, training, competition, and recovery are all three indispensable.

And then in this constant adjustment, slowly bring the overall state of the team to the peak.

Pan Yi understands that the ups and downs of players' state exist objectively and cannot be changed.

The coaching staff, including the physical fitness coach, is to adjust the state of the players as much as possible under the premise of following the objective laws of the human body, or let the good state appear in the game.

Now with Pintus, it's clear that this is much easier to achieve.

……

During the training and warm-up periods, Hamburg also received a number of official offers for players in the squad.

It's not just about De Bruyne and Son Heung-min, who have performed well.

Players like Janssen and Mancien, who are currently playing less in the Hamburg team, have also been asked for trades by some teams.

But Pan Yi refused all of them, and only agreed to loan midfielder Tescher to Fortuna Dusseldorf.

This is mainly due to the fact that the current position of the back is indeed a bit overstaffed, Makoto Hasebe, Jakopo Sala, Shelbray, including captain Westerman in the playing order are all ahead of him, and Tescher is really unable to play.

But Pan Yi still didn't sell him, and even added a clause that could terminate the loan at any time.

Although the thickness of Hamburg's lineup has improved, it is not rich enough to let people go casually.

25 first-team players, a lot less, but not too much.

Later in the season, if there is a real injury or shortage, the coach suffers.

So just in case, Pan Yi didn't sell anyone.

When the season ends and the summer transfer window opens, Pan Yi can add personnel in the transfer market again, and then consider trading out some players who can't play, which is good for all parties.

And now, Pan Yi has more time to prepare.

That's because the second half of the Bundesliga season is about to start!

(End of chapter)