Renedy Singh – Indian footballers should learn from Cristiano Ronaldo

Former India international Renedy Singh has urged footballers in India to stay fit during the lockdown period in the country. 

After the Coronavirus pandemic brought the football world to a standstill in March, India has also halted all sporting activities. Renedy believes players should focus on individual training while staying at home. 

“Players haven’t played for three-four months so they become unfit. They have to keep playing, they play all around the year. They usually don’t have rest, except once a week. But due to the pandemic, for the last three months, players are unable to go to the ground and train properly. People who live in villages, at least they can go out and train, but those in cities, it is very difficult for them,” he told Goal. 

He added, “We cannot relax. What coaches do is, we have players in our academy (Classic Football Academy) here – we didn’t think of going out in the first month (of lockdown). Now, what we try to do is, we sort it out because people in villages can go out and do running.

“We are trying to create a training program so that they can improve their fitness and technique. We are trying as much as possible to help them do individual training. In India, we don’t have many players who are tactically sound so it is important for them to train. That is how you develop their technique. If you have a wall and a ball, you can pass and receive the practice your touches. “

Renedy believes that the players can use the little space they have at their homes to put their technical training into use. 

“We can’t play games but we have to do individual training. We have to improve our technique, we cannot just stay at home. Coaches have to think about the team so this is the time to think about individual training. If you don’t train every single day. you are losing around 36,000 touches of the ball in a month. People have to keep working. If they can find a small space at home, they can improve their fitness so when players come back, they come back (in better shape).”

He has called on Indian footballers to take a leaf out of Cristiano Ronaldo’s book regarding fitness during the lockdown. 

“I was reading about Ronaldo – how everyone thought his fitness levels would drop when he returns to training but he came back stronger. That is what professionalism is all about. We have to teach that to the younger lot.”