Footballers try to fill ‘void’ after shutdown
PARIS: Mowing the lawn, playing football with your dog, turning on the TV... footballers around Europe are struggling to fill the “big void” created by the coronavirus shutdown.
Many are writing about the unfamiliar experience on social media. Some have already come to the conclusion that “there is nothing to do”.
Real Madrid players, forced into quarantine by a case of coronavirus in the club’s basketball squad, have been training at home, where most of them had facilities and equipment.
Captain Sergio Ramos posted a video on Instagram showing him sprinting on a treadmill.
Marco Asensio, who suffered a knee injury last summer, posted a video showing his recovery programme in his garden.
But even for sportsmen used to working out, there is a limit.
“I’m here, in my garden, there’s nothing to do,” French striker Karim Benzema said in a video on social media where he appeared alongside his dog, earning him a comparison with Will Smith in the post-apocalyptic film “I am legend”.
Fabien Causeur, a Real Madrid basketball guard, has launched a live video channel to show his quarantine challenge.
He has been taking on athletes and celebrities in three-minute simultaneous excercise including Thibaut Courtois, the Real Madrid goalkeeper, and NBA star and former Real Madrid teammate Luka Doncic.
At Barcelona, players are following a “specific and personalised” programme by the club which is monitoring their efforts using biometric tags.
Luis Suarez had been a step ahead of Ramos, posting a video of himself trudging on a treadmill last week.
In Italy, Juventus midfielder Douglas Costa filmed himself practising his dribbling in his back garden with his dog struggling to fill the role of defender.
Alexis Sanchez, on loan to Inter Milan, has two Golden Retrievers and a much bigger garden but he comfortably outplayed them in a video he put up online. He also posted photos of himself gathering chopped wood.
Jessica Melena, the wife of Ciro Immobile posted a cookery video on Instagram, showing the Lazio striker waving a spatula and mixing a cake while she coached him. Immobile posted his own video in which he juggled furry toys with his feet.
Napoli’s Belgian forward Dries Mertens posted pictures of a work out with a huge bottle of red wine.
Strasbourg midfielder Adrien Thomasson, was looking ahead to another empty week.
“We’ll have nothing to do, in middle of the season, it’s never happened before. Our habits have been turned upside down.”
Thomasson is a ski fan but as other sports are also at a standstill that leaves a “big void” for this ski lover. “I’m going to watch series, movies, it’s going to be really limited.”
Television is also the refuge for James Lea Siliki, a Rennes midfielder, who tweeted the times of a couple of French quiz shows. He admitted a passion for a French TV karaoke show adding “I’ll spare you my voice”.
La Liga players Borja Iglesias and Sergio Reguilon found a novel way to attract 60,000 online fans—by battling out a thrilling Seville derby on the FIFA 20 videogame.
Fans in Andalusia suffering from La Liga withdrawal symptoms after Sunday’s clash between Sevilla and Real Betis was postponed tuned in for the showdown between Betis’s Iglesias and Sevilla’s Reguilon on streaming service Twitch.
The Iglesias-reguilon contest took place at the same time as when the teams’ La Liga game had been due to at the Ramon Sanchez-pizjuan on Sunday.
Iglesias led Betis to a thrilling 6-5 win, scoring the winning goal with his own avatar. “Thanks to the 60,000 plus fans who were live with us today,” Reguilon tweeted.