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Inma Lidón | Illustration: Eva Cerdá Valencia
Valencia
Updated Monday, February 5, 2024-23:06
Whispers of sport Disappointments, betrayals, persecution mania and family in the outbreak of Xavi the 'Machine'
Premier Klopp announces by surprise that he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season
Xavi Hernández
announced by surprise a week ago that he will resign from the
FC Barcelona
bench on June 30. "It is the best. He had decided a long time ago. "It makes no sense to continue," he said. A few hours earlier,
Liverpool
announced that
Jürgen Klopp
will leave the Premier League leader team after eight years. «I'm running out of energy. I know I can't do the job again, and again, and again, and again," the German admitted. Two unexpected door slams reminiscent of
Zinedine Zidane's
in 2021 at Real Madrid and with speeches similar to the one
Pep Guardiola
used to say goodbye to Barça in 2012. «Four years is an eternity.
The reason is very simple, they wear out a lot
», He said then, after winning two Champions Leagues, three Leagues and two Copas del Rey and marking an era.
The life of a football coach is marked by results, but in these escapes a cause recognizable by sports psychologists is perceived:
burnout
syndrome
or the burned out coach
due to
"chronic, severe and difficult to manage work stress."
that generates rejection of one's own professional role. «It's like you're near a bonfire. You notice that it burns you and you want to get away quickly," explains the doctor in Sports Psychology from the University of Murcia,
Enrique Garcés de los Fayos
. «There are three phases: emotional exhaustion, which results in a feeling of lack of energy; distancing from sport and reduced personal fulfillment, which makes it no longer attractive to continue working. It feels like distance is needed », he explains.
In football, professionals are special, but this syndrome has already emerged on the benches due to the particularity of their work, which is increasingly scrutinized and exposed. «It is
a profession of high emotional tension
, where they can do a perfect job on a day-to-day basis and in making decisions, but when the ball starts rolling there is a rival, a context, a referee, an audience, some players with their own emotional and physical states... There is no control over all that. It is explained by
Juan Miguel Bernat
, sports psychologist and head of the High Performance Psychology department at Levante UD. He has even fictionalized it in his book
Player No. 30. How to develop a high performance mindset.
Workaholics
"No matter what team you are on and what you are fighting for, the tension is very high and there are factors that multiply it," he warns. Coaches, according to Bernat, usually have passion, which makes them addicted to work, "with great difficulty in limiting it, and mental health requires moments of disconnection." Public exposure does not help: «They are subject to continuous evaluation. There are no times or processes to reach the objectives.
It's either you're worth it or you're not worth it
. And, furthermore, they do not allow you to disconnect from the errors.
The resources available to carry out the work are not constant either and are conditioned by injuries, markets, club finances or sanctions. "Sometimes the coach himself may perceive that,
with what he handles, he cannot respond to what is demanded of him
and that surpasses him," adds Garcés de los Fayos.
However, they can't afford it. «They feel responsibility for the emotional state of everyone around them. The coach is the leader, we all look at him and feel that they cannot allow themselves to come after a defeat with a dull spirit, without strength, because what must be conveyed is that we must get up, keep pushing... Players or assistants can be flatter one day, they feel they won't. And also, they have to be empathetic with the emotional moment of the footballers.
“That tractor effect is exhausting
,” adds Bernat.
Experience as a protector
Not even having shone on the grass at the highest level helps to avoid it. "Being a soldier is not the same as commanding and, furthermore, the pace may have been rapid and
the appropriate psychological tools to deal with this stress may not have been acquired
," recalls the Murcian psychologist. It is easier for Xavi, Zidane or Guardiola, in their first experiences on elite benches, to end up burned out than
Ancelotti
, "because it has been proven that
experience is a protector
, like having communication and social skills and a well-developed personality."
The cocktail of stressors undermines the confidence of technicians. «They have to learn to not judge themselves based on results, but on their behavior and decisions. Two bad results don't make you a bad coach.
Each match cannot call into question his ability as a coach but rather his performance in that match
," warns Bernat.
Otherwise, they enter a vicious circle: «
sleep disorder, intrusive thoughts, low confidence
... Then it is difficult to make easy and small decisions, they become more addicted to work, they do not disconnect, they do not come to decision-making clearly and That affects the quality. They cannot reverse it and believe that it is better to step aside.
It is like physical fatigue, which cannot be overcome without stopping
», He summarizes.
«It is the technique of marking an end»
This process is understandable when the team does not work, the club trembles and doubts arise, but how is it explained in the sweet moments? It was the case of Guardiola and it is that of Klopp, who says goodbye from the leadership. Bernat has an explanation: «These decisions are not made now, but in a moment of low energy, but it is not the way to leave and they think: I'm going to pick this up and then I'll leave.
You tell your brain, I won't let you rest now, but in a season you will
. There it gives you a boost of energy, when you see the end of something that you are already aware that you cannot sustain day after day. It is the same effect that Xavi has achieved. To his goodbye, the team has shown a reaction.
«It is the psychological technique of marking an end. The wear and tear is so brutal that the mind needs it. It's like redoing yourself in a marathon. If you don't know that there is a wall at kilometer 35 and you suffer, you leave it, but if you know it, you hold on to reach the goal," exemplifies the Levante psychologist.
When is burnout
overcome
? "You have to take a step to the side and not force it," advises Bernat. «But
it doesn't heal itself. It's not enough to run away, you have to work at it
. The football coach saw the psychologist as a rival in the technical field, but that is changing and they are increasingly present. Even the coaches have seen that they are not infallible,” says Garcés de los Fayos.