Elite clubs and national teams: sharing the same party?

More than one billion fans tuned in to watch the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup (WC) BrazilTM, with the competition reaching a global in-home television audience of 3.2 billion people (Television Audience Report for the 2014 FIFA World Cup). From 14 of June to 15 of July 2018, the 21 WC in Russia should overtake this audience. During the competition, every pass, tackle or sprint performedwill still be scrutinizedbybillions of fans,media and various professionals of the game. “What are their chances to make it? ”. “Has the coach chosen the right system? ”. “Are players fit enough to perform through the entire competition? ”. While national teams now have resources and staff comparable to most elite clubs in the top leagues, could/should national staff members really be held fully responsible for players’ fitness and performance during the tournament? The lead up to this incredible event is complex, with the majority of players having played their last domestic game less than a month before the start of the competition. In this specific context, preparing the players is always a challenge for national team staff, who have to find the right balance between (i) recovery to allow players to regenerate from their exhausting domestic league and (ii) training to get them fit and ready for the competition. The challenge is even greater than meets the eye, since in contrast to a club setting where practitioners have frequent, continuous contact with players that allows ongoing monitoring (Buchheit et al. 2013, 2016), national team staff have very limited contact time with their players and have to work discontinuously with them. This interrupted player monitoring makes the assessment of players’ readiness and fitness more difficult (e.g., less historical data to compare with, less knowledge of context). In fact, over one season, players train and play for about 10 months with their respective clubs, while they may spend only 4 × ̴ 10 days during the year with their national teams (i.e., “international breaks”), before the 3-week pre-WC preparation. In between the end of the 2017 Euro and the 14 of June, international players would have spent about ̴ 250– 270 days with their clubs, and at best, 60–70 days with their national teams (Buchheit 2017a). Finally, players from a single national team often play in more than 10 different clubs and different leagues, which dictates their time of arrival when joining their national team. The final of the UEFA Champions League is 26 of May, the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga end on 12–13 of May, La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Ligue 1 (France) all end on 19–20 of May. The competitive standards and the type/amount of training those players engage in is very heterogeneous, which further complicates the understanding of their individual level of preparation leading to the WC. It becomes intuitive that success at the WC should find its roots planted in the collaboration between national teams and elite club staff. While those two latter entities have likely different objectives (i.e., winning the domestic titles vs. WC) over different time windows (i.e., 10 vs. 1 month), it is in fine in the interest of all to manage well both the health and performance level of the players that they look after alternatively during the year. For both entities, the period when the players are “with the other” could represent a “black period” with no or little control of load and training methods, which can be problematic for all. Coaches and performance staff from national teams are generally first seeking for players’ readiness to prepare their friendly/qualifying matches. In contrast, the greatest hopes of club practitioners are to get their players back injury-free and not overloaded by match accumulation (international match starters) and conditioned enough (subs) for the start of the next domestic league phase/season upon their return from the international breaks/WC. While those objectives may sound opposites on the short term (i.e., winning at all cost vs. keeping players fit and healthy), they may in fact be both achieved via improved communication lines and advanced collaborative work between both entities. The most important elements that need to be transmitted/ followed up by both entities are the following (not exhaustive):