Xabi Alonso signs technology for his Real Madrid team: drones in training, Big Data analysts, thermal cameras...

Xabi Alonso wants to have everything under control in his first few weeks at Real Madrid . He won't be able to know what his players are thinking, but he wants to know the rest: the physical, physical, tactical, and technical details of his squad. And to do so, the Tolosa native and his coaching staff are using all the technology at their disposal. A clinical eye is useful, but in today's football, with cameras, data, and tools, everything goes beyond a glance. In his first 11 training sessions in Palm Beach , staff members have worked with a drone , a thermal camera , and the classic GPS .

Let's move on to the drone , the most striking. These days, a small vehicle capable of autonomously maintaining a sustained flight level and altitude has been flying over the skies above The Gardens North County District Park, a giant open-air park converted these weeks into the headquarters of the Real Madrid team 100 kilometers north of downtown Miami. Along with Huijsen and Trent , it has been the team's big signing for the World Cup. The device, controlled by two people from Madrid's training ground, rises almost 50 meters before the start of each session and records all the Real Madrid training sessions so that analysts on Alonso's coaching staff can later study the images and draw technical and tactical conclusions from the exercises.

" Distance and positioning will make us better . Knowing where we need to be, positioning ourselves, and being a closer team. The shorter we are, the better distances we'll have." Xabi's statement at the pre-debut press conference perfectly sums up the importance and interest the Tolosa native places on space in his team.

"learn, evolve, and adapt"

Hence the drone and the video work he does with them afterwards so they can analyze their positioning errors from a bird's-eye view. " Video plays a fundamental role ; it will make us better; we use it a lot visually. Now that they're in the hotel, they won't escape us. It's a dynamic we want to carry over all season," he explained.

Beyond the pitch, if there's one place the players have been seen frequently during this World Cup, it's in the video room , a learning moment for a locker room that has welcomed their coach's technological ideas with open arms. "They show a great willingness to learn, evolve, and adapt to this new era."

Real Madrid has commissioned a Palm Beach company to manage the drone, but when they return to Valdebebas, they will request the necessary permits to continue working with this tool. This was a request from the coaching staff as part of a small revolution Xabi has wanted to bring to the Real Madrid bench.

GPS antenna

Because next to the two people in charge of the drone is the GPS antenna used by the staff to monitor their players, and beyond the pitch, they work with a tool that uses infrared thermography and artificial intelligence to aid in injury detection. It's called Thermohuman and its objective is to automatically analyze skin temperature, identify fatigue, improve performance, and monitor rehabilitation and the process of returning to the pitch after an injury. The CEO is Ismael Fernández , PhD in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and the latest signing to Alonso's coaching staff, where he will work as a Big Data analyst for injury prevention.

Thermohuman's software , which was already in use by the basketball and women's teams, uses " avatars, metrics, thermograms , graphs, neural networks, and smart alarms to simplify data visualization and facilitate interpretation for decision-making." It's Xabi's technology.