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Milan Labs secret of youth

MARCH 1, 2008 by Simon Kuper

AC Milans very old men are sauntering around a training pitch in the hills near Lake Como.
A grey man in a blue suit and blue trenchcoat gazes down at them, smoking a cigarette.
Surely this smoker cant be the head of footballs best medical team?

But it is. Jean Pierre Meersseman, Belgian director of the Milan Lab, may have discovered the
secret of eternal youth. His Lab has helped make Milan world and European champions. On
Tuesday, in the Champions Leagues second round, Milan defend their title against Arsenals
kids.

As a matter of fact, chuckles Meersseman when we sit down, yesterday we had a game, and
the average age was 33. We have the oldest team in Europe.

He singles out Milans eternal captain, Paolo Maldini. Hes close to being 40, and whenever
he was running against that kid playing against him yesterday, he was much stronger. Hes
close to perfect.

What is the maximum age for a top-class footballer? I think around 40. It used to be 34 at
most. Again, that soft chuckle.

The Milan Lab began in 2002. Milan had just spent 30m in transfer fees and salary to sign
Real Madrids Fernando Redondo. Redondos body appeared perfect. Then it collapsed.
Milan resolved never to waste 30m again. The Lab was created to reduce injuries.

If you can predict the possibility of injuries, says Meersseman, you stop the player before.
The Lab discovered that just by studying a players jump, it could predict with 70 per cent
accuracy whether he would get injured. It went on from there, collecting millions of data on
each player on computers.

Meersseman says: The extent of non-traumatic injuries has been reduced by over 90 per
cent, compared with the previous five years. So thats interesting. We have 92 per cent less
medication than in the previous years. Sadly, days after we spoke, Milans forward Ronaldo
suffered the injury that may end his career.

When Milan buys players, is the Lab consulted?

You bet you, says Meersseman. The last signature on the contract before the big boss signs
is mine. On many occasions I said no, and I would say every he pauses yes, every time,
the player did not do very well afterwards.

Why might he veto a player? Basically alterations in their gait mechanisms, how they jump.
But we did sign some players when everybody said: You cant do it, hes at the very end. I can
give you a name: Cafu. That was five years ago. Hes still here. Because we saw the problem
could be fixed.

Having vanquished injuries, the Lab turned to perfecting Milans players. As each player was
different, each needed a different regime. Clarence Seedorf, for instance, was banned from
exercising certain muscles as they were already at the desired maximum.

The Lab now thinks this sensory perception is the key quality in football.

After meeting Meersseman I visited Daniele Tognaccini, Milans chief athletics coach, who is
tall, slim and fairly superhuman himself. Tognaccini told me that the average Milan player
ran 10 to 11 kilometres a game.

Who ran most? Kak, Rino Gattuso and Cafu, replied Tognaccini. He laughed: Ronaldo, no.

But, he added, there was no correlation between running kilometres and winning matches.
There is a correlation between the number of sprints and winning.

Before leaving the Lab converted, I asked Meersseman whether other big clubs did anything
similar. No.

Why not? It seems a good idea. Meersseman smiled: It seems a good idea. You can drive a
car without a dashboard, without any information, and thats whats happening in soccer.
There are excellent drivers, excellent cars, but if you have your dashboard, it just makes it
easier. I wonder why people dont want more information.

Did other clubs ask him for advice? Oh yes. And what did he say? That they should do it.
The Labs methods are secret. Ask Tognaccini to explain a certain machine, and he says:
No.
Other clubs, said Meersseman, fall back into the medical model. You see, thats the problem.
In medicine you are dealing with sickness. Here we are dealing with extremely healthy
people.

And the Lab has only just started. Its new partner Microsoft is improving the Labs software.
Belgiums University of Leuven is helping to perfect training. Let me stop for a second and
explain this better, said Meersseman. We are trying to make a system that may say: Now
you will run 100 metres. You will rest 43 seconds, then run 80 metres, stop for one minute
two seconds, and then run 61 metres. We are trying to do this with predictive algorithms.

Forget sharing information with other clubs. If the Lab sold its secrets to the worlds
consumers, it would render face-lifts and wrinkle creams defunct. This could be the salvation
of Italys economy.

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