Real Madrid bring back “hated” behind-the-scenes club legend with new manager

The replacement of Xabi Alonso with Arbeloa has brought another significant change: the return of Antonio Pintus as a central figure in the Real Madrid dressing room. The Italian fitness coach will become the new manager’s right-hand man as he makes the jump from Castilla to the first team.

Florentino Pérez, a strong believer in Pintus’s work, had been pushing for his return to a more prominent role, increasingly concerned about the squad’s physical condition and the growing number of injuries. That concern prompted Pérez to abandon his usually hands-off approach and travel to Jeddah to take a more direct role with the team. With Pintus’s return and the arrival of Niko Mihic a week earlier, Real Madrid have completely restructured this department.

Pintus is “the devil”, but everyone loves him. That nickname, born out of affection and respect, is how players refer to Antonio Pintus, now 63, when he puts them through one of the iconic tests of the so-called “Pintus Method”. These stress tests, held every summer and occasionally mid-season, have produced the now-familiar image of Real Madrid players running around the Valdebebas training ground wearing bulky masks. They are brutal sessions. “A player told me, ‘You’re the devil,’” Pintus admitted in 2023, without revealing who it was. That relentless intensity defines his work and underlines why he is returning to the forefront of the first-team coaching staff.

The Turin native’s CV speaks for itself. Despite playing a secondary role in recent seasons, he remained on the first-team payroll as performance manager after the arrival of Xabi Alonso and his staff. The teams he has conditioned have won five European Cups: one with Juventus, one with Monaco and three with Real Madrid. At the club, he worked with Fernando Morientes, who recalled him in 2018 like this: “He’s a nice, friendly guy, but a bit of a bastard, although I love him to bits. My competition weight was 83 kilos, and Pintus got me down to 79 in three weeks. I’ve never been so hungry in my life as I was with him.”

Pintus first arrived at Real Madrid in 2016 at the request of Zinedine Zidane, who knew his methods well from their time together at Juventus. When Zidane was finally able to build his coaching staff from scratch at Valdebebas, he had no hesitation in handing physical preparation to his old friend. The results were immediate. The Twelfth followed, with Pintus playing a key role in the historic La Liga and Champions League double of 2017, and then the Thirteenth in 2018. Pintus distanced himself from the rest of Zidane’s staff when the Frenchman first left the job, and Zidane chose not to bring him back for his second spell. The club, however, reinstated him in 2021 to support Carlo Ancelotti, and the partnership paid off instantly with a Champions League final and title in Paris.

A true fitness obsessive, Pintus leads by example. He regularly runs 20 kilometres and lifts weights in the gym. “It’s important that they see me working so I can set an example,” he said during the 2017 pre-season. His training programmes are designed to push players to their limits, and identifying those limits is exactly what his famous mask tests are for. Everything is geared towards one objective: ensuring players reach peak physical condition for the decisive matches at the end of the season. “At the top, the Pintus method!” Luka Modrić shouted as he embraced him after the comeback against Manchester City in the 2022 Champions League semi-final.

On the eve of that year’s final, Pintus summed up his philosophy in an interview with Jugones. “It’s a method that adapts to different teams and different needs. Pushing players to their limits, but with respect. I know they sometimes hate me.” He also revealed how highly valued his work is inside the club. “Every time Florentino sees me, he asks whether we’re going to push hard,” he said. The ‘hated’ Pintus, the magician behind five Champions League titles, is once again rolling out his method at Valdebebas.