Racism, insults on and off the field, pressure, injuries, defeats… In professional football there are success, money and fame, three words that provoke the envy of half the world, but also, and not too deep down, there are negative aspects that sometimes turn a privileged profession into hell. Therefore, in a planet increasingly tolerant of psychological concerns, the words health y mental They have fully entered the locker rooms of Spanish professional football, surely never to leave again.
I suffer from anxiety, depression, I hid behind rivals so they wouldn’t pass the ball to me… I even faked an injury so they would change me because I was afraid of failing, he explains in conversation with this newspaper. Tree Gurrutxagaplayer of the Real society between 2001 and 2004. I had always believed that it only happened to me until we published the book Subcampen. 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, hid, 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 turns up 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, admit to EL MUNDO Dennis Surezmidfielder Villarreal and former of Celta, City or Baraamong others.
“The psychologist is not there to ‘I have a problem and I’m going'”
It is no longer just that mental health has stopped being a taboo in the world of football, but that conversation is encouraged on it to improve sports 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 every day. 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 skills to grow, explains on the other end of the phone Emilio Ibaezpsychologist Alavs and member of the technical team of Luis Garcia Plaza, one of the LaLiga coaches who has a psychology expert on his bench. There are still few who go to the pitch, while in other locker rooms, such as Madrid, Barcelona or Atlético, footballers go to individual psychologists outside the club structure. But they come, while coaches like Ancelotti or SimeoneAs they admit from the Bernabu or the Metropolitano, they 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, Ibaez reflects.
“I understand Iigo Martínez”
In recent weeks, the mental issue has once again taken center stage when analyzing the racist insults to Vinicius Jr and the encounter of Iigo Martnez with a fan who had called him stupid when leaving a training session. Only. 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 Iigo, 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 field you have to try to isolate yourselfand outside there are situations in which, with education, they do not have to remain silent, comments Ibaez, who gives social networks as an example of many of the problems: Hidden, without showing your facepeople say what they want because they know that it has no judicial significance.
I lived that Brais Mndeznow at Real Sociedad, whistled in Balados when he played for Celta, his city team: It seems that by paying the entrance fee you are entitled to everything and that is not the case. I don’t go to a baker’s or gardener’s workplace and start insulting him.. It doesn’t enter my head. I understand Iigo Martínez perfectlyrecognizes THE WORLD.
“Before we were appointed”
Compared to football a few decades ago, Ibaez assures that the emotional demands of now is much older, but 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 endingthat we were in impossible problems, the psychologist recognizes.
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’. It’s not easy. I have learned many things on a personal level, 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 hand, the psychologist: I have a structured work with each of the footballers and I do it independently of the coach, who understand my privacy. I go ahead, I do a psychological evaluation, things in which they can grow during the season, objectives… And above all, work emotional competencieslas social skillsemotional autonomy, generating your motivations, that your confidence does not depend on the outside and that your work has to be above your emotional state.
“What am I preparing for?”
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 focus on them, such as The Factory or The Farmhouseor other more humble ones. Who prepared me to suddenly go from being unknown to being known? “Being a kid?”, 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 the project ‘Ready’ of LaLiga, which helps active footballers to be aware of the importance of mental health and the necessary preparation for retirement. 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 points out.