By: Mario Ramírez
What has to happen for a footballer to receive the rest he deserves? What has to happen for FIFA to order a less intense schedule? What has to happen for clubs and national teams to take the footballer’s side? What has to happen for a footballer to be treated as a human being and not as a machine? What has to happen for the footballer to be heard?
Last weekend the most shocking thing that can be seen in any sports match was experienced: A player was on the verge of death. Christian Eriksen, a Danish player, collapsed on the pitch at Euro 2020 and the images that were broadcast live on television suggested that the worst possible had happened. According to ESPN, this event was due to a cardiac arrhythmia that is also popularly called “sudden death.” According to this same source, said deficiency is extremely difficult to diagnose and appears from time to time without giving prior notice. Even the doctor of Inter Milan, his current club and current champion of Italy, said that the player never showed signs of a heart problem. An apparently healthy and strong world-class athlete was nowhere to be seen, the Dane’s heart stopped completely for a few seconds and he received medical attention for ten minutes that seemed like an eternity. Fortunately, he managed to leave the stadium conscious.
It is no secret that soccer is the sport with the most demanding schedule for its respective athletes. Comparing them with other major sports leagues: NBA and NHL compete for a maximum of eight months a year, receiving four off, being the most demanded leagues among those compared. Major League Baseball lags a bit behind, competing seven months and resting five, while the NFL is the one who receives the most recovery months with seven, for only five of competition at most (from all these times you have to subtract a few weeks for preseason). The American leagues can be criticized in many respects but human care is definitely not one of them.
Returning to football, the footballer receives a maximum of only two months of rest and it is said “maximum” because this is what they can aspire to when there is no international competition, which happens in most summers. Adding these competitions of nations and the preseason, the footballer receives at most one month of rest for 11 of fatigue and it is the sport with the longest duration per game.
The human body is not an unstoppable effort machine, it is true that they are world athletes and, despite the fact that many footballers do not seem like it, they are still human beings. So much game, so much tournament and so much attrition could end up killing them one day, and unfortunately it is being spoken literally. Does a tragedy really have to happen to a world-renowned soccer player for soccer organizations to realize that they are over-exploiting the player? We have already seen that big clubs want to copy certain formats to the American leagues. Why not copy what is human instead of what is commercial?
It only remains to hope for the best and that Christian Eriksen’s recovery can reach him to live the rest of his life without complications, today his career and football itself have passed … to second term.
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