Footballers now have sleep coaches too The new professional figures in football: every aspect is now taken care of with meticulous attention to detail

In Bologna they have introduced a new professional figure. Or rather, they found it already in their locker room, because the club's welcome manager is Lorenzo De Silvestri, a player who is humanly different from the others. Born in 1988, he is a central figure in Vincenzo Italiano's squad, able to act as a mentor both on and off the pitch for the younger players or those who have just joined the club. These newcomers are in fact welcomed by De Silvestri with a walk around the city, showing and telling them about the most characteristic places. Perhaps it's no coincidence that he does it — he has chosen only clubs in artistic cities during his career. A guide who spreads culture not for its own sake but with the intention of helping new signings connect with the local reality so they feel at home right away. Hence the need to find a name for this additional role that the already right-back naturally fulfills: here is the welcome manager, which is only one of the new names we find among employees and collaborators of football clubs.

On the pitch

We have understood that creating a group and being close to the player is a fundamental part of football. For this reason more and more clubs are introducing people who have a direct relationship with the players and who take care of their mental well-being. Far from the technical-tactical dynamics, now largely handled by specialist staff for every game situation, there are a number of professionals constantly available for everything else, starting from a calm and motivated mind for the athlete. In this field we find many roles that may seem similar to each other, but each has its own specificities. Among these is the life coach, often a collaborator of clubs and players who helps maintain balance off the pitch, working not only on the sporting side but on overall personal growth. Concretely, they can help face certain moments of a player's career or season better: having the right mindset for the second part of a championship, managing transitions from the end of a contract, from a serious injury, and from retirement, a moment in which the majority of athletes feel disoriented.

A function similar to this is the wellbeing manager or player care manager, a figure that promotes all-around well-being (physical, psychological and social). They prevent possible burnout, monitor psychological load and ensure that the player lives in a healthy environment among family, private dynamics and rest. Teams like Luton Town, Everton, Tottenham and the Australian Women's National Team rely on these professionals.

Closer to pitch dynamics is instead the sports psychologist, a specialist focused on maximizing the sporting performance of the individual or the group through psychological tools. They help manage performance anxiety which arises more often in players with a lack of personality, motivate, calibrate the mind on the objective and promote proper communication between athletes and staff, with whom they remain in contact to compare notes. In the field, one of the pioneers was Professor João Carvalhaes who already in the 1950s was the psychologist of São Paulo and the Seleção that won the World Cup in Sweden in 1958. In December 2021 Ralf Rangnick, then coach of Manchester United, brought Sascha Lense — a sports psychologist he had worked with for years at RB Leipzig — to the club. The architect of successes for the German team, he could do nothing against the black hole in which the Red Devils still find themselves today.

The mental coach is instead a trainer of the winning mentality, easily confused with the psychologist. This includes managing different situations, such as media pressure, accepting mistakes during a match, self-confidence and resilience. Many players also rely on a mental coach, as in the case of Mattia Perin who has publicly stated the importance of this person. The case of Tim Coates, an English mental coach who arrived at AS Roma last November shortly before Ivan Juric's sacking, can be described as almost tragicomic; he was hired to strengthen players' mental preparation. Well, his adventure at Trigoria lasted about twenty days and one of his images went viral when, during a protest at Roma-Bologna, he was photographed on the bench almost in tears.

If, unfortunately, an athlete must face deeper mental challenges, such as depression, trauma, addictions or anxiety disorders, the psychotherapist steps in. The latter intervenes when psychological prevention has been absent or ineffective in avoiding such issues, which can occur in an exceptional life like that of a footballer. The psychotherapist helps them with difficulties that go beyond the green pitch. All these figures — which are rarely all found together in a single club — can be coordinated by a person who organizes the entire mental preparation system of the club. At the helm of such programs is the Club's Head of Mental Performance, among whom there is also an Italian. This is Andrea Cannavacciuolo who, after being performance coordinator at Monza, Südtirol, Palermo, Feralpisalò, held this role in the United States. From January to December 2023 he worked at Charlotte FC in North Carolina as Club's Head of Mental Performance.

Off the pitch

Moving away now from any discussion about the pitch, we find other characters who take care of the player in different ways, especially during free time. For example there is the lifestyle manager, a figure who is very familiar with their client and performs an almost logistical function. They are the one who helps them find a home when they move to a new city, can organize the player's and their family's vacations, contribute to managing free time and social relationships. They are often associated with the person who introduces the player to luxury, seen as a personality.

Even more attentive to the athlete's image and communication is the social media advisor or brand manager. Without these figures many players — Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo above all — would not become true companies, brands recognizable worldwide. Without rhetoric, the power of social media is obvious to everyone and having someone who curates how you present yourself and what you want to convey is fundamental. In this case, clubs also recognize the importance of the role to help grow their own organization.

The last tidbit in the panorama of new professionals in the world of football is the sleep coach or sleep expert, which is becoming increasingly widespread in a sport where players can play every three days. Long trips, almost always different kick-off times, and constant travel can lead to sleep disorders. Jet lag, fatigue and stress are effects that the expert counters to optimize sleep quality. How? By recommending the right mattresses and pillows, paying attention to the proper room temperature, noise and light. Establishing a pre-sleep routine that includes avoiding blue light or the use of other electronic devices, having the right dinner and other behavioral habits that improve the phases of falling asleep, maintaining sleep and waking up. All aimed at a set of goals: improving recovery, reducing the risk of injuries, managing stress and having an athlete who is mentally and physically responsive at the right moments.

The welcome manager opens new frontiers in attention to the player — something that should be extended to all other staff members as well — to whom, as we have seen, all the means are made available to perform at their best. A protected species to be preserved in every way, where people with a direct relationship with the players will find more and more space.