Real Madrid: Here’s how important Antonio Pintus will be

On Tuesday, Real Madrid finally announced their manager’s name, appointing their former manager Carlo Ancelotti, six years after sacking him. Carlo Ancelotti’s name came as a surprise, as he wasn’t considered a contender just 24 hours before the announcement. But on Tuesday everything happened in a flash, as he resigned from his managerial role at Everton to rejoin the club that is close to his heart.

With the recent criticism of the Real Madrid board and Florentino Perez, the decision got a mixed response from the fans. Though Ancelotti is a figure who is loved by the fans due to him winning the elusive La Decima title, some fans saw this as a move that delays the impending revolution and the origin of the supposed new project. But along with Ancelotti, two more names were linked to Real Madrid on Tuesday, which increased the excitement among the fans.

Those two names were that of Luis Campos, the former sporting director of Lille who has been continually linked to the club in the recent months, and the other name was Antonio Pintus, whose name came as a complete surprise. Antonio Pintus, the former fitness coach of Real Madrid who’s known to be one of the best in the business, was linked with a sensational return to the club where he spent three years.

Antonio Pintus was first appointed as Real Madrid’s conditioning coach in 2016 when Zinedine Zidane was the manager. He had a successful first term at the club, and he continued even after Zidane’s departure in 2018. He had a great bond with the players, and he got to work with fitness freaks like Cristiano Ronaldo, who was called a ‘psychopath’ by Pintus for his unreal work ethic. 

Antonio Pintus was very successful at Inter after leaving Real Madrid

But he left Real Madrid in the summer of 2019, to join Antonio Conte at Inter Milan. Some reports claimed that he left due to Zinedine Zidane’s return, who was said to be unhappy with Pintus staying at the club even after the Frenchman’s departure.

Gregory Dupont was appointed as Real Madrid’s fitness coach in the same summer after Italian’s exit, but Dupont couldn’t leave a great mark during his tenure at Real Madrid. In fact, his reputation only got worse at Los Blancos, with injury records being set in the 2020/21 season. In the seasons Dupont worked at the club, there were a combined total of 114 injuries, which is at least 25% more than the number of injuries suffered by Real’s Spanish rivals Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.

The frequent injuries to important players such as Eden Hazard, Dani Carvajal, Sergio Ramos, Fede Valverde, and many more players made life difficult for the manager Zinedine Zidane, as he never had the honour of working with the complete squad at his disposal. There were fingers raised at the Sanitas Medical facilities, but most of the criticism was received by the Frenchman, who left his job at Madrid along with Zidane.

In the meantime, Antonio Pintus became highly successful at Inter Milan, and he received a lot of praise for his work at the Nerazzurri, who won the Scudetto in the 2020/21 season. But with Antonio Conte leaving the club due to his clash with Inter’s board, Antonio Pintus had to leave the club along with the manager. There wasn’t any speculation of his return when he left Inter, until Tuesday when his name was heavily linked and the speculations were confirmed by Fabrizio Romano as well. 

This reunion between Real Madrid and Antonio Pintus is very important

Pintus’ track record speaks for itself. He worked for Real Madrid at a time when they had to play physically demanding against Europe’s top teams in the three-peat era, during which Pintus’ work in training ensured that the players were at the physical level required to play. He has worked in different clubs across Europe that won 21 trophies with Pintus being the fitness coach, whose efforts didn’t go unnoticed.

Pintus is a highly disciplined and dedicated coach, and he demands the same dedication from his players in training. He is strict with his approach and expects the players to get used quickly to his methods and understand that fitness is highly important for a player’s performance. Chelsea’s players used to see him as a sadist when he worked there, due to his strict methods. But at the end of the day, he achieved results and kept his players fit, something that is enough to make any club happy.

Former Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes had these words for Pintus, in an interview with MARCA:

"“He’s like an uncle. Nice, kind, but a bit of a bastard. My competitive weight was 83 kilos and Pintus made me go down to 79 kilos in three weeks when I was in Monaco. I have never been as hungry as I was with him.”"

Well, some players from the current roster should be careful with Pintus, at least after reading this. Even if it is the off-season, someone like him will make sure you shred the burgers and chips that were consumed in the vacation, with his strict methods.

It is really great news for Real Madrid that Pintus is returning, and this appointment also shows the value they’re giving to fitness especially after seeing such a disastrous season in terms of injuries. Hope to see Pintus help Real Madrid players work harder from now, and stay fit for most of the season.