“Sun and sea is the medicine to recover.” That prescription came courtesy of Gaizka Mendieta, the former Spain midfielder, as we discussed footballers’ holidays in an Istanbul hotel on 11 June.
It was the morning after the Champions League final had closed the door on the 2022/23 club campaign and Mendieta was listing the places to which players habitually flock at the season’s end: Spain’s Balearic Islands, Dubai, the Maldives. Or all three in the case of Atlético de Madrid coach Diego Simeone, who threw in a Greek island for good measure.
There are other popular spots – a contact at one Premier League club cites Las Vegas – and today, thanks to social media, smartphones and certain tabloid newspapers, footballers’ summer activities are easily documented.
A quick Google search summons snaps of players on beaches, yachts and elsewhere – from Kylian Mbappé watching tennis at Roland Garros to Jude Bellingham at Paris Fashion Week via a bucket hat-wearing Jack Grealish (possibly summer 2023’s most-photographed footballer) playing a set with a DJ at an Ibiza nightclub. My personal favourite was that of a shirtless Simeone looking the epitome of joie de vivre on a basket-fronted bicycle, quite a contrast to his stern all-black matchday apparel.
It is not all fun in the sun, though. “Summers are not as disconnected as they used to be,” Mendieta explains. In his day, the one-time Valencia, Lazio and Barcelona player could indulge in “20 days of literally no exercise”. It was even longer when he arrived in England, at Middlesbrough, in 2003. Still, nothing like the full summers off that enabled the double life of a sportsman like Denis Compton, a 1947/48 league champion with Arsenal and brilliant England cricketer.
By contrast, players today are likely to have no more than two weeks of complete rest before resuming fitness work. “We used to say football players were not athletes because football had different preparation,” adds Mendieta. “But now they’re real athletes with the diet and sport science.”
According to the technical director of one UEFA national association, players with June internationals are encouraged to maintain their aerobic capacity – which can drop after around ten days – through non-football exercises. “We advise them to do activities such as a spin or circuit session for aerobic maintenance two or three times a week,” he says.
Often there is barely a break between the season ending and international commitments. To cite an example from this summer’s Under-21 EURO, Spain’s Sergio Gómez appeared in his country’s first group fixture against Romania 11 days after sitting on the Manchester City bench in the Champions League final.
“Sun and sea is the medicine to recover.” That prescription came courtesy of Gaizka Mendieta, the former Spain midfielder, as we discussed footballers’ holidays in an Istanbul hotel on 11 June.
It was the morning after the Champions League final had closed the door on the 2022/23 club campaign and Mendieta was listing the places to which players habitually flock at the season’s end: Spain’s Balearic Islands, Dubai, the Maldives. Or all three in the case of Atlético de Madrid coach Diego Simeone, who threw in a Greek island for good measure.
There are other popular spots – a contact at one Premier League club cites Las Vegas – and today, thanks to social media, smartphones and certain tabloid newspapers, footballers’ summer activities are easily documented.
A quick Google search summons snaps of players on beaches, yachts and elsewhere – from Kylian Mbappé watching tennis at Roland Garros to Jude Bellingham at Paris Fashion Week via a bucket hat-wearing Jack Grealish (possibly summer 2023’s most-photographed footballer) playing a set with a DJ at an Ibiza nightclub. My personal favourite was that of a shirtless Simeone looking the epitome of joie de vivre on a basket-fronted bicycle, quite a contrast to his stern all-black matchday apparel.
It is not all fun in the sun, though. “Summers are not as disconnected as they used to be,” Mendieta explains. In his day, the one-time Valencia, Lazio and Barcelona player could indulge in “20 days of literally no exercise”. It was even longer when he arrived in England, at Middlesbrough, in 2003. Still, nothing like the full summers off that enabled the double life of a sportsman like Denis Compton, a 1947/48 league champion with Arsenal and brilliant England cricketer.
By contrast, players today are likely to have no more than two weeks of complete rest before resuming fitness work. “We used to say football players were not athletes because football had different preparation,” adds Mendieta. “But now they’re real athletes with the diet and sport science.”
According to the technical director of one UEFA national association, players with June internationals are encouraged to maintain their aerobic capacity – which can drop after around ten days – through non-football exercises. “We advise them to do activities such as a spin or circuit session for aerobic maintenance two or three times a week,” he says.
Often there is barely a break between the season ending and international commitments. To cite an example from this summer’s Under-21 EURO, Spain’s Sergio Gómez appeared in his country’s first group fixture against Romania 11 days after sitting on the Manchester City bench in the Champions League final.
Gómez’s captain with Spain, the Braga forward Abel Ruiz, considers a shortened summer a simple fact of life. “It is what it is – if you play for your national teams and are called up, you get few holidays,” he tells me, citing his own example. “We played the Portuguese Cup final on 4 June and on the 9th we met up with the national team. I was at home for three days with my family.”
For Paul Balsom, head of the UEFA Fitness for Football Advisory Group, mental rest is the paramount concern in an era when players’ physical levels seldom drop too far. “This whole idea of resting in the close season is fading, if not obsolete,” he remarks. “The big question is the mental side of things; that’s what I hear from players. They like the chance to not come into the training ground every day, to be able to spend time with family and just relax.”
This chimes with the view of another coach who works individually with players and says they require time away from their clubs “to be themselves”. He elaborates: “You need the time to decompress as football is incredibly stressful psychologically. You’re being judged every day, so you just need time to breathe.”
Thanks to individualised plans, gone are the days when players would often return overweight from their summer break. And nor do you see them subjected to the hard running up hills or over sand dunes that would typically mark the start of pre-season.
“Ten or 15 years ago, you’d give them a handbook and with some of them you’d find it in the bin,” adds Balsom. “But now you can be pushing it out on a weekly basis on telephones. Some players will do it to the book; some will do their own thing but use what you give them as a guide; and there’ll be some players who don’t do it. It’s all about empowerment: do they want to improve and get better?”
“Microdosing” is the term that Balsom uses for the fitness work that many do. “This means high-intensity interval work. Basically, you keep the intensity but bring the volume right down. In a session, you can be in and out in 30 minutes so it’s just to keep everything ticking over every three or four days. The word is maintenance and my personal view is that, in a 45-60 minute session, you can hit everything – strength, power, aerobic, functional movement.
“You basically give a stimulus to everything during these six weeks so you don’t lose anything and can pretty much hit the ground running on the first day of pre-season.” Running, but not too hard… and not a sand dune in sight.
“Sun and sea is the medicine to recover.” That prescription came courtesy of Gaizka Mendieta, the former Spain midfielder, as we discussed footballers’ holidays in an Istanbul hotel on 11 June.
It was the morning after the Champions League final had closed the door on the 2022/23 club campaign and Mendieta was listing the places to which players habitually flock at the season’s end: Spain’s Balearic Islands, Dubai, the Maldives. Or all three in the case of Atlético de Madrid coach Diego Simeone, who threw in a Greek island for good measure.
There are other popular spots – a contact at one Premier League club cites Las Vegas – and today, thanks to social media, smartphones and certain tabloid newspapers, footballers’ summer activities are easily documented.
A quick Google search summons snaps of players on beaches, yachts and elsewhere – from Kylian Mbappé watching tennis at Roland Garros to Jude Bellingham at Paris Fashion Week via a bucket hat-wearing Jack Grealish (possibly summer 2023’s most-photographed footballer) playing a set with a DJ at an Ibiza nightclub. My personal favourite was that of a shirtless Simeone looking the epitome of joie de vivre on a basket-fronted bicycle, quite a contrast to his stern all-black matchday apparel.
It is not all fun in the sun, though. “Summers are not as disconnected as they used to be,” Mendieta explains. In his day, the one-time Valencia, Lazio and Barcelona player could indulge in “20 days of literally no exercise”. It was even longer when he arrived in England, at Middlesbrough, in 2003. Still, nothing like the full summers off that enabled the double life of a sportsman like Denis Compton, a 1947/48 league champion with Arsenal and brilliant England cricketer.
By contrast, players today are likely to have no more than two weeks of complete rest before resuming fitness work. “We used to say football players were not athletes because football had different preparation,” adds Mendieta. “But now they’re real athletes with the diet and sport science.”
According to the technical director of one UEFA national association, players with June internationals are encouraged to maintain their aerobic capacity – which can drop after around ten days – through non-football exercises. “We advise them to do activities such as a spin or circuit session for aerobic maintenance two or three times a week,” he says.
Often there is barely a break between the season ending and international commitments. To cite an example from this summer’s Under-21 EURO, Spain’s Sergio Gómez appeared in his country’s first group fixture against Romania 11 days after sitting on the Manchester City bench in the Champions League final.
“Sun and sea is the medicine to recover.” That prescription came courtesy of Gaizka Mendieta, the former Spain midfielder, as we discussed footballers’ holidays in an Istanbul hotel on 11 June.
It was the morning after the Champions League final had closed the door on the 2022/23 club campaign and Mendieta was listing the places to which players habitually flock at the season’s end: Spain’s Balearic Islands, Dubai, the Maldives. Or all three in the case of Atlético de Madrid coach Diego Simeone, who threw in a Greek island for good measure.
There are other popular spots – a contact at one Premier League club cites Las Vegas – and today, thanks to social media, smartphones and certain tabloid newspapers, footballers’ summer activities are easily documented.
A quick Google search summons snaps of players on beaches, yachts and elsewhere – from Kylian Mbappé watching tennis at Roland Garros to Jude Bellingham at Paris Fashion Week via a bucket hat-wearing Jack Grealish (possibly summer 2023’s most-photographed footballer) playing a set with a DJ at an Ibiza nightclub. My personal favourite was that of a shirtless Simeone looking the epitome of joie de vivre on a basket-fronted bicycle, quite a contrast to his stern all-black matchday apparel.
It is not all fun in the sun, though. “Summers are not as disconnected as they used to be,” Mendieta explains. In his day, the one-time Valencia, Lazio and Barcelona player could indulge in “20 days of literally no exercise”. It was even longer when he arrived in England, at Middlesbrough, in 2003. Still, nothing like the full summers off that enabled the double life of a sportsman like Denis Compton, a 1947/48 league champion with Arsenal and brilliant England cricketer.
By contrast, players today are likely to have no more than two weeks of complete rest before resuming fitness work. “We used to say football players were not athletes because football had different preparation,” adds Mendieta. “But now they’re real athletes with the diet and sport science.”
According to the technical director of one UEFA national association, players with June internationals are encouraged to maintain their aerobic capacity – which can drop after around ten days – through non-football exercises. “We advise them to do activities such as a spin or circuit session for aerobic maintenance two or three times a week,” he says.
Often there is barely a break between the season ending and international commitments. To cite an example from this summer’s Under-21 EURO, Spain’s Sergio Gómez appeared in his country’s first group fixture against Romania 11 days after sitting on the Manchester City bench in the Champions League final.
“Sun and sea is the medicine to recover.” That prescription came courtesy of Gaizka Mendieta, the former Spain midfielder, as we discussed footballers’ holidays in an Istanbul hotel on 11 June.
It was the morning after the Champions League final had closed the door on the 2022/23 club campaign and Mendieta was listing the places to which players habitually flock at the season’s end: Spain’s Balearic Islands, Dubai, the Maldives. Or all three in the case of Atlético de Madrid coach Diego Simeone, who threw in a Greek island for good measure.
There are other popular spots – a contact at one Premier League club cites Las Vegas – and today, thanks to social media, smartphones and certain tabloid newspapers, footballers’ summer activities are easily documented.
A quick Google search summons snaps of players on beaches, yachts and elsewhere – from Kylian Mbappé watching tennis at Roland Garros to Jude Bellingham at Paris Fashion Week via a bucket hat-wearing Jack Grealish (possibly summer 2023’s most-photographed footballer) playing a set with a DJ at an Ibiza nightclub. My personal favourite was that of a shirtless Simeone looking the epitome of joie de vivre on a basket-fronted bicycle, quite a contrast to his stern all-black matchday apparel.
It is not all fun in the sun, though. “Summers are not as disconnected as they used to be,” Mendieta explains. In his day, the one-time Valencia, Lazio and Barcelona player could indulge in “20 days of literally no exercise”. It was even longer when he arrived in England, at Middlesbrough, in 2003. Still, nothing like the full summers off that enabled the double life of a sportsman like Denis Compton, a 1947/48 league champion with Arsenal and brilliant England cricketer.
By contrast, players today are likely to have no more than two weeks of complete rest before resuming fitness work. “We used to say football players were not athletes because football had different preparation,” adds Mendieta. “But now they’re real athletes with the diet and sport science.”
According to the technical director of one UEFA national association, players with June internationals are encouraged to maintain their aerobic capacity – which can drop after around ten days – through non-football exercises. “We advise them to do activities such as a spin or circuit session for aerobic maintenance two or three times a week,” he says.
Often there is barely a break between the season ending and international commitments. To cite an example from this summer’s Under-21 EURO, Spain’s Sergio Gómez appeared in his country’s first group fixture against Romania 11 days after sitting on the Manchester City bench in the Champions League final.
Gómez’s captain with Spain, the Braga forward Abel Ruiz, considers a shortened summer a simple fact of life. “It is what it is – if you play for your national teams and are called up, you get few holidays,” he tells me, citing his own example. “We played the Portuguese Cup final on 4 June and on the 9th we met up with the national team. I was at home for three days with my family.”
For Paul Balsom, head of the UEFA Fitness for Football Advisory Group, mental rest is the paramount concern in an era when players’ physical levels seldom drop too far. “This whole idea of resting in the close season is fading, if not obsolete,” he remarks. “The big question is the mental side of things; that’s what I hear from players. They like the chance to not come into the training ground every day, to be able to spend time with family and just relax.”
This chimes with the view of another coach who works individually with players and says they require time away from their clubs “to be themselves”. He elaborates: “You need the time to decompress as football is incredibly stressful psychologically. You’re being judged every day, so you just need time to breathe.”
Thanks to individualised plans, gone are the days when players would often return overweight from their summer break. And nor do you see them subjected to the hard running up hills or over sand dunes that would typically mark the start of pre-season.
“Ten or 15 years ago, you’d give them a handbook and with some of them you’d find it in the bin,” adds Balsom. “But now you can be pushing it out on a weekly basis on telephones. Some players will do it to the book; some will do their own thing but use what you give them as a guide; and there’ll be some players who don’t do it. It’s all about empowerment: do they want to improve and get better?”
“Microdosing” is the term that Balsom uses for the fitness work that many do. “This means high-intensity interval work. Basically, you keep the intensity but bring the volume right down. In a session, you can be in and out in 30 minutes so it’s just to keep everything ticking over every three or four days. The word is maintenance and my personal view is that, in a 45-60 minute session, you can hit everything – strength, power, aerobic, functional movement.
“You basically give a stimulus to everything during these six weeks so you don’t lose anything and can pretty much hit the ground running on the first day of pre-season.” Running, but not too hard… and not a sand dune in sight.
“Sun and sea is the medicine to recover.” That prescription came courtesy of Gaizka Mendieta, the former Spain midfielder, as we discussed footballers’ holidays in an Istanbul hotel on 11 June.
It was the morning after the Champions League final had closed the door on the 2022/23 club campaign and Mendieta was listing the places to which players habitually flock at the season’s end: Spain’s Balearic Islands, Dubai, the Maldives. Or all three in the case of Atlético de Madrid coach Diego Simeone, who threw in a Greek island for good measure.
There are other popular spots – a contact at one Premier League club cites Las Vegas – and today, thanks to social media, smartphones and certain tabloid newspapers, footballers’ summer activities are easily documented.
A quick Google search summons snaps of players on beaches, yachts and elsewhere – from Kylian Mbappé watching tennis at Roland Garros to Jude Bellingham at Paris Fashion Week via a bucket hat-wearing Jack Grealish (possibly summer 2023’s most-photographed footballer) playing a set with a DJ at an Ibiza nightclub. My personal favourite was that of a shirtless Simeone looking the epitome of joie de vivre on a basket-fronted bicycle, quite a contrast to his stern all-black matchday apparel.
It is not all fun in the sun, though. “Summers are not as disconnected as they used to be,” Mendieta explains. In his day, the one-time Valencia, Lazio and Barcelona player could indulge in “20 days of literally no exercise”. It was even longer when he arrived in England, at Middlesbrough, in 2003. Still, nothing like the full summers off that enabled the double life of a sportsman like Denis Compton, a 1947/48 league champion with Arsenal and brilliant England cricketer.
By contrast, players today are likely to have no more than two weeks of complete rest before resuming fitness work. “We used to say football players were not athletes because football had different preparation,” adds Mendieta. “But now they’re real athletes with the diet and sport science.”
According to the technical director of one UEFA national association, players with June internationals are encouraged to maintain their aerobic capacity – which can drop after around ten days – through non-football exercises. “We advise them to do activities such as a spin or circuit session for aerobic maintenance two or three times a week,” he says.
Often there is barely a break between the season ending and international commitments. To cite an example from this summer’s Under-21 EURO, Spain’s Sergio Gómez appeared in his country’s first group fixture against Romania 11 days after sitting on the Manchester City bench in the Champions League final.
