Real Madrid president believes trusted staff member could be the ‘secret to winning the Champions League’ | OneFootball

Having replaced Xabi Alonso as manager with Alvaro Arbeloa last month, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was quick to reinstate Antonio Pintus as the team’s fitness coach.

The Italian, a trusted personnel of Perez, had been relegated to a symbolic ‘head of performance’ role since Alonso’s arrival, with the Basque tactician bringing his own physical trainer – Ismael Camenforte.

However, with the growing number of injuries in the first-team squad, Perez had been pushing for Pintus’ addition to the backroom staff. And Alonso’s reluctance to do that was one of the factors that led to his dismissal.

Perez trusts Pintus to be the difference

Now, according to The Athletic’s Mario Cortegana, Florentino Perez trusts Pintus so much that he believes that the fitness trainer could be the ‘secret to winning the Champions League’.

Indeed, Pintus was once again handed the duties of the first-team physical preparation right from Alvaro Arbeloa’s first training session, as the president considers him a very important figure.

A club source told The Athletic: “Florentino really thinks that Pintus is the secret to winning the Champions League.”

Florentino Perez’s trusted man. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

This report comes after Pintus put the team through a rigorous training session this past Wednesday, with the players working out wearing the K5 masks.

The masks are used to gather data about their players’ aerobic power during intense exercise tests.

Pintus, during the successful Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti ears, used the masks to assess the squad’s condition twice during a season – first during pre-season, second midway through the campaign.

Based on the results, endurance training programmes are designed for each player based on their individual needs.

Arbeloa is fully onboard with having Pintus on his staff and Perez firmly believes that the Italian could be key to unlocking the team’s full potential in terms of fitness and physical preparation.