Maradona's former trainer: Business has consumed football

Fernando Signorini (72) has traveled the world with his enormous knowledge as an athletic trainer. Having become friends with Luis Cesar Menotti and Maradona during the period when these two played for Barcelona, 'el Profe' became the best possible assistant for the Argentine No. 10, following him from 1983 to 1994.

From Barcelona to the U.S. World Cup in '94, with seven years in between in Naples, Signorini built a unique career that not only highlighted his role as the first personal trainer for a footballer, but also developed his critical awareness of player effort. The many injuries leading up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar do not surprise him at all...

In the 2014 book "Football, a Call to Rebellion. The Dehumanization of Sport" you point the finger at the overly dense schedules of today's soccer, which too often result in injuries...

"Business has ended up eating away at the spectacle. Today the quality of play no longer matters as much as the quantity. Winning is the only thing that matters, and for the rest there is no room. It is the wrong cultural approach, which is rotting football, increasingly a product and less a sport."

In his farewell match Maradona had uttered between tears the famous phrase "la pelota no se mancha" (the ball does not get dirty). Instead, it seems the opposite has happened...

"If the players don't say anything, let them (ruin) themselves. They are the ones who need to talk. Diego in '86 was the only one who said what he thought about the calendar, and he still wasn't as busy as (they are) now. Today the only one who spoke out against corruption and against the deaths in Qatar was Philipp Lahm, who hasn't played in a while. If players allow themselves to be exploited by business, that is their problem."

It would take an international players' union, no?

"But no one talks, no one acts. So many of them are multimillionaires and yet they don't make themselves heard, let alone show that they feel a commitment of solidarity to their less fortunate colleagues. They could have immense power and yet they do not exercise it. Football is a collective sport, but the players have not been educated in humanity, and everyone thinks (of themselves) and ends up becoming more and more selfish. The football players should remember that without them there is no show. What would be the media impact of a players' union? Not even FIFA could oppose it. It is a product that sells a lot, maybe too much - and people continue to consume it, it's all rubbish. Just think, the other day I watched the Argentine Super Cup final with my neighbour, a Racing fan. At the end of the game, since I brought good luck, he told me to go to his house for Argentina's opener against Saudi Arabia too, at seven in the morning! I told him, 'don't count on me' (laughs)."

What is the difference between a World Cup at the end of the season and one in the middle of the season?

"At the end of the season, players (turn up) much better, because when the (leagues) end, the only players who have been forced to put in a lot of effort are those who made it to the finals of the Champions League. Now, on the other hand, with such a tight schedule, it's a whole different thing. Before there were at least two weeks of preparation, now some teams have not even had one week."

In your book that came out eight years ago, the title talked about the 'dehumanisation' of sports...

"A prescient title, but already at that time this process of losing a humanity that we should instead recover for the cultural construction of the working classes was evident. But no one cares about any of this. Here in Argentina, an 18-year-old boy committed suicide because he was left off a team's call-up list. And this is not the first case. But what are governments doing about it?"

It has gotten out of hand, clearly.

"It's (a) circus. It's like (a Roman) arena, except instead of having the lions against the gladiators there are the people challenging each other, and football goes hand-in-hand. It is a business that cannot be stopped at any time."

You accompanied Maradona to the '86 and '90 World Cups. What was the most noticeable change 20 years later, when you were the trainer of the entire Argentina team?

"Undoubtedly the preparation time, which in South Africa was very short, since we carried out a retreat of just nine days. In comparison, it is enough to think that in 1978, Cesar Menotti started the preparation four months earlier, given that the players available to him were all involved in the Argentine championship (apart from Mario Kempes). In 1986 we had about forty days in total."

You followed Diego's physical recovery process after breaking his ankle. Is it therefore obvious to think that a joint injury is more harmful than a muscle one, the most frequent among recently injured players?

"Yes, but it depends on the degree of the injury. And there is not only the problem of physical recovery, but that of mental recovery. An injury puts many doubts in your head. In Argentina, we say "if a person gets burned by milk, then they will cry when they see a cow". Many reduce the discussion only to physical recovery, yet the central problem is the mental one."

Please give us some examples...

"In 1978 Menotti had already summoned Ricardo Bochini to the World Cup, yet he was convinced he was suffering from cancer, (but) he had nothing. Yet he was so impacted by this idea that during training he was so disappointing that he was not called up for the World Cup. The emotional aspect is decisive, and nobody takes it into consideration."

Argentina, among the favourites for the title, see Angel Di Maria and Paulo Dybala turn up with muscle problems. It seems like a stretch, but the appeal of the World Cup is very strong...

"And it is this forcing that bothers me a lot. Players are (at) the bottom when in reality they should be in charge. Imagine what (players like) Messi, Benzema, De Bruyne (and) Salah could do by raising their voices. In my opinion, they shouldn't even be afraid of a hearing in (the international) court. How is it possible that they are not heard? It reminds me a lot of Hegel's lord-servant dialectic, with the system that uses football to send the wrong message, about everyone that you have to win by force and that the latter is a failure."

Does this circus really risk ruining the show of the game?

"Logically it is. Furthermore, also think about the idea of a draw which leads to extra time, which can also come in a (hot) climates. That's thirty minutes more of effort, but why is extra time played? Because that's thirty more minutes of commercials, and how much does the minute of advertising cost? Plus, the showing will be poor, because how many teams can really go all the way and compete? For me they should play ten national teams and play all against all. Because with the current formula, it's not the best who wins, but whoever wins it. And sometimes (it's) even (just) luck."

In Argentina, where inflation is galloping and more and more families live below the poverty line, the football circus is creating a lot of excitement in the days leading up to the World Cup in Qatar…

"It is the consequence of the fact that football has now become pure business. A frivolous business that makes people think you have to play, and feel the shirt, (which) feeds a stupid feeling of patriotism."

This trend is partly justified by the fact it will be Lionel Messi's last World Cup, no?

"I'm not sure it will be Messi's last World Cup. Indeed, I will tell you that for me he can continue to play for many more years, perhaps playing a little further back or entering the endgame. We are talking about a genius, who is born once in a while. Messi miraculously arrived shortly after Diego, but it's a coincidence. Also, I tell you what: they will offer him so much money to keep him from quitting that anything can happen."