With players still struggling after a busy summer, the world’s professional footballers’ union (FIFPro) has issued a red alert, saying the 2024-2025 campaign will be the toughest ever endured by top professional footballers.
FIFPro conducted a survey of 1,500 players and found that more than half of them had to play at an intensity that exceeded the allowed level. Of that group, 1/6 had to play more than 55 matches/season. This index is considered the final limit for each player's physical condition so that they can play at their best.
One of the members of the FIFPro Board of Directors - Maheta Molango used the examples of Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah to show how getting enough rest can help players thrive on the pitch.
"The two examples I want to list are Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah . People can see from the beginning of the season until now, Haaland is still a destructive scoring machine, like the way he first set foot in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, despite being over 30, you can see Mo Salah is back to his best. Put these two stars against players who have not had enough rest and we see the difference. With players who have worked so hard over the past season and summer, the fatigue is most evident.
They are very tired at a time when the season has not even started. If they have an unbalanced summer, the upcoming matches will not seem to have much meaning" - Molango shared.
Haaland and Salah were not called up to the national team this summer and had a full summer break. Being called up to international tournaments is a huge honour. However, not being called up is not a disaster as a full summer break of around 8 weeks is extremely valuable.
Last season, Julian Alvarez played 75 official matches for Man City and the Argentina national team. Including the times he was put on the field "for show", that was 83 matches. Alvarez's former teammate Phil Foden played 72 matches, the same number as Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez (Liverpool).
Players are now expected to play like machines week in, week out. At 21, Jude Bellingham has played 251 first-team games. That's almost five times as many as David Beckham did at the same age. If he keeps up his pace, the Real Madrid midfielder could make 1,200 appearances in his career. Wayne Rooney had only 900 before he retired.
Currently, FIFPro and FIFA are having fierce arguments about the intensity of the players' matches. FIFA is accused by FIFro of exhausting the players to maximize profits. Meanwhile, on the contrary, FIFA believes that it is the players' agents who are the "hypocrites". FIFA believes that the agents know best how much the players benefit and how much money they earn and should not be blamed like that.
In the coming time, when friendly tournaments and the new version of the FIFA Club World Cup appear with high frequency, players who do not have to participate in national team tournaments are also at risk of being exhausted. Therefore, many clubs have considered using young stars from the training academy right from the beginning of the season to increase the number of players. Or, they will buy as many as Chelsea to ensure that the team never falls into a situation of lacking players.
