Abraham P. Romero Madrid
Madrid
Updated Tuesday, April 2, 2024-22:20
Iñigo Martínez "The last time you call me stupid, the last. Don't be a pimp!"
The Spain clause agrees with Vinicius with racism
Playing with a disadvantage "They must work harder so it doesn't affect them"
Racism, insults on and off the field, pressure, injuries, defeats... In professional football there is
success, money and fame
, three words that provoke the envy of half the world, but also, and not too deep down, there are aspects negatives that sometimes turn a privileged profession into hell. For this reason, in a planet that is increasingly tolerant of psychological concerns, the words "
health
" and "
mental
" have fully entered the locker room of Spanish professional football, never to leave again.
"
I suffered anxiety problems, depression
,
I hid behind rivals
so they wouldn't pass the ball to me... I even faked an injury so they could change me because I was afraid of failing," explains
Zuhaitz Gurrutxaga
, player of the
Real Sociedad
between 2001 and 2004. «I had always believed that it only happened to me until we published the book Subcampeón. Suddenly I get messages from former teammates with 300 games in the First Division telling me that they identify with what I'm saying, that they also faked injuries, they hid, they didn't want to play... I thought I was the only one in that regard.
Gurrutxaga, as he acknowledges, is not the only one. A quick search on the internet finds the names of
Iniesta, Ferran Torres, Camarasa
and countless footballers who have admitted to being mentally overwhelmed by football. His example explains how natural the psychological section already is within the locker room, the constant help that is provided in this sense from the clubs and the players' environments and the few prejudices that exist within the squads. «He speaks more naturally than before.
I finish training and go to the psychologist
. Saying that now is something normal and before maybe you did something to avoid getting caught, it was something that was hidden,"
Denis Suárez ,
Villarreal
midfielder
and former
Celta, City or Barça player
, among others, admits to EL MUNDO.
"The psychologist is not there to say 'I have a problem and I'm going'"
It is no longer just that mental health is no longer taboo in the world of football, but that
conversation about it is encouraged
to improve sporting performance. That is why teams have psychologists, whether integrated into the coaching staff or within the club structure, and why it is increasingly fashionable for players to go to a personal coach to help them cope with their daily lives. «The psychologist is not there to 'I have a problem and I go.' That is the great evolution of recent years.
Now we work on prevention
so that they have the skills to grow," explains
Emilio Ibañez ,
Alavés
psychologist and member of
Luis García Plaza
's coaching staff , on the other end of the phone
, one of the LaLiga coaches who has a psychology expert in his team. dock. There are still few who go to the grass, while in other locker rooms, such as Madrid, Barça or Atlético, footballers go to individual psychologists outside the structure of the clubs. But they come, while coaches like
Ancelotti or Simeone
, as they admit from the Bernabéu or the Metropolitano, are the "psychologists of their locker rooms."
«The change is brutal, very important.
They see me as one of them, in a tracksuit and not in an office with a robe
. The footballer has understood that his success comes not only with good physical preparation, but also with the mental part," reflects Ibañez.
"I understand Iñigo Martínez"
In recent weeks, the mental issue has once again been the protagonist when analyzing the racist insults to
Vinicius Júnior and
Iñigo Martínez
's clash
with a fan who had called him "stupid" when leaving a
Barça
training session . Two issues, insults and criticism, unrelated to the ball itself but that influence the performances of the footballers. «There is a basic problem in society, of training. I have not encountered a problem of this type (Vinicius case), but we always work on the issue of values. In the case of Iñigo, I tell my players that they are in the football showcase and that everyone has an opinion. That what is good for some is shit for others and that there are all kinds of opinions.
In the countryside you have to try to isolate yourself
, and outside there are situations in which, with politeness, you don't have to keep quiet," says Ibañez, who gives social networks as an example of many of the problems: "
Hidden, without showing their face
, "People say what they want because they know that it has no judicial significance."
Brais Méndez
, now at Real Sociedad,
experienced this,
whistled in Balaídos
when he played for Celta, his city team: «It seems that by paying the entrance fee you have the right to everything and that is not the case.
I don't go to the workplace of a baker or gardener and start insulting him
. He doesn't get into my head.
"I understand Iñigo Martínez perfectly
," he acknowledges to EL MUNDO.
"Before we were singled out"
Compared to football a few decades ago, Ibañez assures that the emotional demand now "
is much greater
," but that the openness of footballers and clubs to this issue helps. «As a player I had several injuries and those of us who relied on that emotional work were singled out.
It seemed like the world was ending
, that we were in impossible problems," acknowledges the psychologist.
But
what do footballers work with the psychologist? What do they learn?
«I started working on it a year and a half ago. For example, if Barça caught me at the age I am now and not at 23 years old, it would still have been something else. He scored a goal and was 'the midfielder of the next 10 years'. And the next day you stopped playing and you are 'the sale of the summer'. Is not easy. I have learned many things on a personal level, to
give importance to other things, not just football
. Let's put it into perspective, that it's not 'football, football, football' all day and that there can be bad moments, that people can write to you...", explains Denis.
On the other side, the psychologist: «I have a structured work with each of the footballers and I do it independently of the coach, who
understands my privacy
. I go ahead, I do a psychological evaluation, things in which they can grow during the season, objectives... And above all, work on
emotional competencies
,
social skills
, emotional autonomy, generating one's motivations, so that one's confidence does not depend on the outside and that their work has to be above their emotional state.
"Who prepared me?"
In the clubs, beyond the first team, the main concern on a psychological level falls on the boys and girls of the quarry. Whether they are those with the media spotlight on them, like
La Fábrica or La Masia
, or other more humble ones. "
Who prepared me to suddenly go from being unknown to being known
as a child?" asks Gurrutxaga, who at 16 was in the youth team of the national team. «In my town the only pressure they had was to know if they had money to go out that Saturday or not. Football can be a meat grinder if you are not prepared," explains the former footballer, who is now part of
LaLiga's 'Prepared'
project , which helps active footballers to be aware of the importance of mental health and what necessary preparation for withdrawal. "It is difficult to understand that at 34 you are too old for your job when it is the age at which many people are starting their working lives," he says.