The technological revolution that is coming in Athletic: the extra weight of its Big Data, a laboratory in Lezama and football Erasmus

• Jon Uriarte Thus will place the centenary Athletic Club at the forefront of football

Rock and roll

on the field and the "romanticism" of a centennial club, although the "profound transformation" led by Jon Uriarte in the new Athletic will come from the hand of Big Data.

Data, data and data for making each and every one of the decisions of a club that in 2023 will celebrate 125 years of history but that needs this technological revolution to abandon complacency.

Uriarte, the president of Athletic who last Friday made his bet on the change against

and

, will implement radical changes such as salaries with variables, the professionalization of the entire technical structure of Lezama, the support of talent scouts in the hiring of specialists in all areas of the club, soccer erasmus for young promises, European affiliated clubs and all this under the baton of a general director of football, the vault key of the Uriarte project that was left empty with the breaking of the agreement with

due to some messages on Twitter used to torpedo the already Atletico president.

Uriarte announced last Friday night, almost without a voice and broken after a superhuman effort of six weeks, that he will arrive at the Ibaigane palace to "see, listen and learn."

The most relevant decision, although not the most urgent, involves the hiring of the new general director of football, the representative of that unified leadership in which the first men's and women's teams will be integrated, up to the smallest agreed club, passing through Lezama.

Uriarte turned to a head hunter to select Carlos Aviña through Big Data.

Of the Mexican, with experience in Aztec soccer, in French and now in Belgium (Círculo de Brujas), Uriarte knew almost everything but did not intuit that some macho and homophobic tweets from 10 years ago would force him to dispense with the coach two days before the elections.

The new rojiblanca directive analyzes the list of candidates in which Aviña was found to hire a technician without the pressure of the electoral battle.

The future general director of football will coordinate

and

(coach of the women's team), the director of performance, the director of sports development and transfers,

(Villarreal, Levante) as director of Lezama, and

, responsible for women's football.

All of them (waiting for the names not yet communicated but already signed) have contracts with a "considerable variable part", as explained by Uriarte during the campaign.

A criterion that will now have to be applied to the renewals of key players in the first team such as

, whose contract ends in June 2023. It will be the first examination of the relationship between a squad with inflated salaries (85% of the expenses of the club are destined for the men's first team when in the Premier it is 46%).

Uriarte has announced a football erasmus for which young people in training will move to European countries to play football and study.

He has promised to create a network of "affiliate clubs" in Europe where he will send his most promising footballers to develop their potential.

professional rehabilitation

In addition, Lezama will have to provide players and players but also resources.

Currently only 2% of the kids and kids who enter these facilities opened in 1970 reach the first teams.

The estimated cost per player per year in Lezama is 30,000 euros and Uriarte wants to multiply the number of professionals that emerge in Lezama so that some become consolidated in the first team and the rest are transferred and generate income with which to compensate for training received.

Training that is also in itself a new source of income.

Lezama will host an AC Academy similar to the Basque Culinary Center located in San Sebastián, which trains the best chefs in the world with astronomical enrollments.

And also in Lezama a

will be developed that will multiply the use of Big Data in the training of coaches and players.

The development of all the technologies will be coordinated with the

, open to technicians from other clubs throughout Europe.

Athletic intends to generate a training fund that facilitates the professional rehabilitation of those young people who do not become professionals.

Those who do get a place in the elite will not stop learning.

The Uriarte team wants each player to have their own continuous professional development, with objective performance and improvement variables.

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