Gregory Dupont was a member of Zidane’s coaching staff during his second term at Real Madrid. Known as The scientist, Dupont came to Madrid with an excellent reputation for the work he’s been working with Lille, Celtic and especially with the French national team, which he prepared for the world title in 2018. Despite doubts about the squad’s injury rate in his first season at the club, he made a significant contribution to making the players fit and giving them the stamina they needed to make up lost points and take the 2019-20 championship title.
Dupont was also charged with keeping players in shape while in isolation during the pandemic. In 2020-21, his methods were again questioned after a series of injuries and he left the club in June last year, leaving his position to Antonio Pintus. In an interview with La voix you north he looked back on his time in Madrid.
Received a call from Real Madrid: “I was fine where I was but I hadn’t had the experience of working for a big club. I’m not saying that Lille is not a big club, but Real Madrid is on another level … So needed I do something like that “. When the opportunity arose, I accepted. My role was only to be a first-team fitness trainer. At the French Football Association, I had more freedom and other tasks. At Real Madrid everything was in its place and you had your commitments to meet “.
Was there less room for error in Madrid? “We totally knew what it meant to be in the service of the club. It’s very professional, everything is calculated and measured. The club’s image is very important, the way we proceeded … Everything was staged . “
Relationship with French colleagues: “With all French speakers, because Eden Hazard also speaks the language. I knew Eden from Lille, I saw him grow up there … My relationship with everyone was great – Raphaël (Varane) and Karim (Benzema) of course, Ferland Mendy. Thibaut Courtois too “.
And with Zinédine Zidane? “Of course, and his assistants – David Bettoni, Hamidou Msaidie … There was a large, small community of French speakers.”
How did the trainers deal with criticism? “It’s part of football and part of life at big clubs. At Real Madrid, Zizou was criticized – and he’s Zizou! As a coach, he’s won the Champions League three times and you look at his career on top of that and so on.” ” of the things he has won … But yes, criticism can sometimes hit the coaches, it all depends on their personality. And it’s the same with the players. Some say it doesn’t concern them, but it does. Much of it depends on what mechanisms they have to deal with it – for example their family and private life “.
Zidane: “Zizou is very demanding. Sometimes we have this image of a very talented player who makes everything look so simple, but he’s someone who has worked very hard on what he’s doing. He’s a very demanding coach and a very respectful “1. He makes the players work very hard. He always tries to make her progress. We have often talked about our own experiences. For example, playing games every three days, is it better to sleep in a hotel all day? before a game instead of being at home with the family …? “
Benzema: “Karim is incredibly professional, very rigorous. He tries to optimize every aspect of his game, he works very hard, he is precise and he looks at every detail. At Real Madrid everyone has to train hard. Sergio Ramos, Lucas Vázquez, Raphaël Varane … Eden Hazard as well. Some might think that having talent is enough. Talent is useful, but at some point it may not be enough. “
Media attention: “We are all aware of that. At Madrid, even small things can turn into something worse. Something a player says during a training session could appear in the newspaper the next day. Once we worked with a player.” who had to work to speed it up and the next day there was an article about him in the newspaper … It’s worrying “.
Did you feel pressured at Real Madrid? “Yes, I even got threats. If you didn’t give them information, they’d say things about me. The only way was not to react. But they did it anyway. At one point when we had injury problems,” it was all my fault . They even went so far as to falsify the results to create the impression that injured players tested positive for Covid … “
Did you feel bullied? “Yes, and so do the players. At Real Madrid, the players put on disguise so that they could go into town and not be recognized – even just to go to the cinema. If they are at a very high level, it is because they are “” have gone through many different stages in their careers. They find a way to make their life as comfortable as possible. They know that we, the employees, cannot control everything they do. You are the only thing is in them. ” Your control is how they are perceived. Nowadays there are journalists who write whatever they want. And at Real Madrid everything is over the top – a lot of what is written is completely wrong and there is not much you can do about it because correcting them is only giving them meaning they don’t deserve “.
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