Klopp's warning of world football disaster coming true

It's a World Cup year and what worries planet football most at the moment is the form of the players arriving for the tournament. A depleted national team loses morale and chances to be crowned. It will be an atypical match, perhaps the most in history, as it will be played between November and December and will take place on Qatari soil. But the fact that the World Cup will be played at the end of the year, and that it has therefore been necessary to tighten the calendar even more, shows how inclement the sport is on the physical condition of its players.

Sports medicine has come a long way since those torn ligaments that forced early retirement, and recovery times for most injuries have been shortened. What is of concern now is the influence of the player's mental state on his physique and the increasingly ambitious and overworked planning of FIFA officials. A tired body cannot recover quickly if the mind is also fatigued.

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National team commitments are becoming more frequent and with them the danger of injury. In the case of Europe, the UEFA Nations League, instituted in 2018, has meant that elite players can play up to 65 matches in a season, should their club and national team reach the final stages of the tournaments to be played. Brutal.

With France's Jules Koundé, Memphis Depay of the Netherlands (both Barcelona) and David Alaba of Austria (Real Madrid) injured in recent Nations League matches, their frustrated clubs can only look on helplessly. The downside comes when it comes to the issue of loyalty. It is the club that pays the salary, but it is the national team that validates the player to the fullest extent. If the player turns down his national team in order to avoid injuries that deprive him of playing important matches for his club, he is seen as a mercenary; but if the player shows love for his national team, no one will dare to reproach him.

Klopp and Guardiola had anticipated it

Those who determine the calendar seem to overlook the players' breaks. Coaches like Klopp and Guardiola, who are under pressure to maintain a superlative level, have been emphatic about the drudgery of playing four competitions in England - apart from the commitments players have with their national teams - and that squads, however large they may be, are not enough to perform in every single game. In contemporary football, the player is not protected from the kicks of his opponent, but from the calendar.