Real Madrid may reach the stratosphere.
The team recently surpassed 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion, £844 million) in revenues for the 2023-24 season and boasts a squad valued at 1.8 billion euros by the CIES Football Observatory. Now, with the team’s physical trainer, Antonio Pintus, teaming up with NASA, space may be the next frontier.
Pintus has been working with the space agency as part of its Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972. He visited the space agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to speak about how his methods can be applied to the work of astronauts and how they can stay healthy during missions.
A key figure at Madrid, Pintus’ approach combines technology and data analysis. The players, who call him “the Sergeant” because of the intensity of his training, have great respect and affection for him. His recent appointment as the club’s performance director and head fitness coach is a testament to his status.
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Pintus’ relationship with NASA began last summer when Real Madrid toured the United States during pre-season. NASA’s Spanish engineer Carlos García Galan met club legend and ambassador Emilio Butragueño during the previous tour and was invited to attend Real Madrid’s training sessions in Houston.
“I was introduced to Antonio, and he said he was very interested in NASA missions,” Garcia-Galan told The Athletic. “We only spoke for 10 minutes during that training session, but we immediately knew we had a lot of common ground and could do something together.”
Garcia Galan works on the Orion spacecraft program, part of the Artemis program, and turned to Pintas because NASA’s goal is to go to the Moon every year and they want to ensure that the physical preparations for these missions are “state of the art.”
A few months after his first meeting with Garcia-Galan, Mr. Pintas visited the Johnson Space Center, where astronauts train, during an international vacation. He spent a week there, touring laboratories and training centers, seeing astronauts prepare firsthand, riding in a simulator of the Orion spacecraft, and speaking with NASA officials from all parts of the company.
Pintas (NASA) tests out NASA vehicles
“When it comes to proving athleticism, nobody beats Real Madrid,” said Judith Hayes, NASA’s chief scientist for human health and performance, “and he has a wealth of experience outside of athletics.”
“He became very popular and had quite a presence. Scientists, exercise physiologists, astronauts, doctors, trainers and engineers hung on every word he shared with us. He was able to challenge our people and our way of thinking. It inspired us to see things differently.”
A lack of space on board a spacecraft limits astronauts’ ability to exercise as much as they would like, and Pintas’ visit prompted a team of NASA engineers to look into developing machines and specific exercises that could be incorporated into astronauts’ daily lives in space.
“Astronauts don’t have to be athletes, but the same methods could work,” Garcia-Galan said. “We were interested in exploring that a little more.”
NASA was impressed with how Pintas uses data to determine the physical condition of each player. With the help of assistants Giuseppe Bellistri and Sebastian DeVillas, his team maintains an extensive database that helps them prepare for the demands of each season.
Pintus sends individual plans to Madrid’s players during their holidays, and last summer he customised their training programmes using special masks to record their oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
The Italians put Jude Bellingham and friends to the test (Gerard Franco/Dax Images)
Garcia-Galan and Hayes say this could potentially be incorporated into astronauts’ pre-mission preparation to improve their physical fitness.
“I respect a lot of the data he has in real time on his phone,” Hayes said. “We were thrilled that he shared with us the kind of things he’s monitoring his players. I was especially excited because he could pull out his phone every day and see the stats on his players and how they’re doing.
“Even though he wasn’t there, he was following what they were doing. Although our goals are a little bit different, it was good to be a part of this technical exchange, because it certainly challenges our status quo.”
This isn’t the first time NASA has turned to sports to improve its methods.
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The agency works informally with Texas professional teams, including the NFL’s Houston Texans, MLB’s Astros, NBA’s Rockets and Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo, as well as with various college and university teams around the world.
“When it comes to engineers and pilots who can become astronauts, we’re always looking for the best people, and Antonio fits into that category,” Garcia Galan said, “but I can’t remember an effort on this scale being done[with a sports team].”
The partnership with Pintus continues. García Galan visited the team’s Chicago training camp on Monday. Madrid will inspect the facility on Saturday before preparing for matches against AC Milan (Chicago) on Wednesday, Barcelona (East Rutherford, New Jersey) on Saturday and Chelsea (Charlotte, North Carolina) next Tuesday, before opening the season against Atalanta in the European Super Cup on August 14.
Pintas (NASA) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas
“We are currently considering what research areas we would like to explore together,” Garcia-Galan said, “We could go to conferences and present something together, for example, what football methods could be used to train astronauts and vice versa. Some astronauts have met with him and are interested in his proposals.”
So, could we see Pintas leading a space mission for NASA himself anytime soon?
“No, no,” Garcia Galan said, “I’m sure he wants to stay at Real Madrid and, as a Madridista, I don’t want him to leave! He’s always learning and innovating in his field and we’re looking for angles of cooperation where we can benefit and he can benefit too.”
(Top photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images; Carlos Garcia-Galan; design by Eamonn Dalton)