We have reached the final stretch of a season full of uncertainty marked by a situation never experienced before with an exceptional protagonist, as unwanted as feared: the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus. Thanks to this ungrateful protagonist, we have lived through a season that has put us all to the test, players, technical staff, soccer clubs, federations, local corporations and city councils,

During all these months, sport professionals of this sport have had to work within a diffuse logical order. The schedules could not always be fulfilled due to unforeseen situations that forced us to reschedule training mesocycles in order to keep the teams in a perfect state of competition. Training sessions had to be carried out in bubble groups, avoiding at all costs cross-interaction between members of the different groups. Interruptions caused by external contagions that affected players, technical staff and rival teams, forcing us again, to modify pre-established training programs and competition calendars between clubs.

Without a doubt many situations that have demanded a lot from many, starting with the players and reaching the soccer federations that have had to work intensely to make soccer a safe sport and also to convince society of this, creating a safe framework for the practice of this sport.

If we look back, we do not know how many versions of anti-covid protocols have had to be created, each version improving the previous one to adapt the safety measures to the federation and health regulations in force at any given time, and on the part of the clubs, making an enormous effort to adapt facilities, signaling access and exits, creating safe areas, always intensively monitoring the correct compliance with rules that nobody imagined could ever be implemented.

If we add to this the ungrateful instruction that the clubs were obliged to give to tens of thousands of parents who could not see their children neither train nor compete on the playing fields, the season became too hard at times…

Within all of the above we found the technical bodies, recipients of the strict compliance regulations on the one hand and the management of the players and their correct preparation on the other. In our case, there was also a factor as dreaded as the virus itself: injuries. This has been a season in which the percentage of injuries suffered by soccer players has increased considerably compared to previous years. The cyclical interruptions produced together with the recovery of intensities prior to the stoppage periods meant that the level of preparation required different methodologies and approaches adapted to each situation. The work of the physical trainers and rehabilitators has been exquisite, as well as the intense effort of the coaches to adapt the loads and training methodologies appropriate in each case, both for the team and in the specific case for goalkeepers.

Aside from all these inclemencies, with the effort and dedication of all, we have managed to forge ahead a soccer season as atypical as exciting that has tested us to demonstrate our maximum capabilities making soccer a safe sport. We have suffered, but we have also enjoyed, we have trusted and distrusted at the same time, every time the virus manifested itself in any of our players or teammates, we have shared what we could offer and withdrawn what we could not give, encouragement and hugs respectively,

It has not been easy to manage for anyone, but the result is there. We close a season loaded with multiple variables and imponderables that undoubtedly for the effort, will and vocation of all, deserves a standing ovation for having been able to bring it all to completion.

In this journey and specifically in the net, we have been accompanied by HO SOCCER, who not exempt from difficulties surely like the rest of the soccer industry, has remained at all times on the side of this sport that gives us all so many standing ovations.

Therefore I give a standing ovation to the 2020/2021 season and all the professionals who have participated in it, with a very special dedication to my colleagues and sports management of our Club.

Josemi Rodríguez | C.D. Leganés
First Team and Youth Squads Goalkeeper Coach
Sports Coach