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Days before Manchester City started the 2024-25 season, Ruben Dias gave a glimpse into the breathless schedule he and his team-mates faced for the next nine months.

“POV: You play for City,” read his post on X, accompanied by a nervous sweating emoji and a spreadsheet showing City’s commitments for the season.

POV: You play for City pic.twitter.com/xETxxLNEoe

— Rúben Dias (@rubendias) August 7, 2024

The Portuguese defender played 57 times for club and country in 2022-23 and has notched another 49 on the body clock this season, the latest being Sunday’s Nations League final victory over Spain.

There is no rest, though. He flies to the U.S. this week with his City team-mates to compete in the newly expanded Club World Cup. It could add another seven games to his schedule if City make the final, just over a month before the new Premier League season gets underway.

High-profile figures in football are becoming increasingly outspoken on the issue of player welfare, with an extended Champions League and expanded Club World Cup adding to their workload.

There are few periods where players get a break, but rather than rest, some are using that time to do the work that is not possible within the relentless rhythm of their clubs.

Dias, along with other elite Portuguese players including Milan’s Rafael Leao, Chelsea’s Renato Veiga and Sporting CP’s Trincao, is a long-term client of PTW360, a training gym based in Carcavelos, 30 minutes outside of Lisbon.

It has become a laboratory for Portuguese players looking to prepare their bodies for the rigours of life at the sharp end.

Dias was the first young athlete to work with Francisco Martins, a former semi-professional player turned fitness coach. Dias was looking for a place to do a mini boot camp for the Under-19 European Championship in 2016 and, eight years later, he still works with the gym as a four-time Premier League winner.

Martins runs the gym in southern Portugal with Ze Miranda, a former rugby player in his youth, whose studies in human kinetics made him realise many footballers were not receiving the bespoke fitness work they required.

Each player who joins undergoes a general muscular endurance test to assess their starting point and gauge where their weaknesses lie. But Ze Miranda finds that even players at the top level often have little understanding of the gym and the potential it has for their game.

Ze Miranda at the PTW360 gym (Jordan Campbell/The Athletic)

“It is very common,” he tells The Athletic.  “A lot of players get to the top because they are technically very advanced, but we are seeing that this is no longer enough.

“Some players are used to the gym work at the club, but that is not enough as it is more general for the team. Here, we do the work for the individual. A centre-back needs to be strong in the duels on the ground and in the air. We work on things like jumping technique and heading biomechanics. We study these specific things a lot, so we do a lot of work on two-foot take-offs and one-leg take-offs.

“Mentality-wise, Ruben is out of this world. He is super competitive and if he was not a footballer, he would be in the Marines. His mentality is different to most.”

More players are being directed to the gym through word of mouth and their social media footprint. West Bromwich Albion striker Josh Maja was put in touch by his team-mate Grady Diangana and spent two weeks at the facility in the summer.

The summer camps have come to be known as ‘pre-pre-seasons’, with players keen to ensure their levels do not drop off too much before they return to training.

“The off-season is always an incredible part of our working year,” says Martins. “There is a special environment in the gym during this time of the year. It’s intense but very contagious at the same time. When athletes are not at the club and don’t have the stress from the games, they want to push themselves to the fullest and make the most gains.

“We were doing maximal anaerobic work with Renato Veiga on the air-resistance bike and, in trying to set the best score in the gym, he broke one of the bike’s handles. That guy is a real beast. If my memory serves me right, he broke a second handle doing the same test a couple of days later.”

Ze Miranda says Veiga’s was the ‘biggest transformation’ (Chris Lee – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Veiga began working with PTW360 when he was in Sporting’s second team, which plays in Portugal’s third tier. After spells at Augsburg and Basel, he was signed by Chelsea last summer for €14million (£11.8m; $15.3m).

“He is the biggest transformation I’ve seen,” says Ze Miranda. “What we’ve seen from him is the perfect prototype of a player getting to the highest level by developing his physical qualities. There are other components, too, but his body was not the same, that’s for sure. He was a bit skinny and weighed around 80kg (176lb/12.6st), but he is now over 90kg and has increased a lot in size.

“The important part was the sequence of his work. Hypertrophy training to build muscle mass, as maximal strength depends on the amount of muscle. If you are stronger, you have more potential to be explosive, so then comes the power phase.

“We believe that football is more and more an individual sport and more about individual duels.”

Maja scored 12 goals in the Championship last season but missed the rest of the season after undergoing surgery for a lower leg injury in January. The aim is for next season to be the first injury-free one of his career.

“Josh came for two weeks and was working almost every day, including some technical and tactical work,” says Ze Miranda.

“Since he went back to the UK, we have continued to do one session a week, usually two or three days before a game, based more on mobility and flexibility, so it won’t cause a lot of fatigue.

“From the day we met, Josh had the mindset that he wants to do everything he can to improve his performance. That is why it is going so well with him and it is the main thing we look for in the players. You need the consistency to see results.

“It was funny, as in the first game this season, he scored a hat-trick and two of the goals were headers. I sent him the videos and he said, ‘Yeah, I knew it was coming!’”

Some fans may wonder why players need to seek out extra training, but Ze Miranda says the main driver is the calendar and the toll it can take on their bodies.

“We have a lot of players who find us in the hope of reducing the risk of injury so we work on the hamstrings, ankles and knees,” he says.

“We look to work on the thing they lack the most and eliminate the weak points, but what we have to offer is not just training, it is change. It has to be a full 360 structure around them. Nutrition, sleep quality, recovery, such as sauna, massage and cryotherapy. We are looking at all of those components.

“It is a change to how players approach football, especially those looking to move up levels. Even parents have started sending their kids at 12 and 13. The kids follow the players and see Rafa Leao and Ruben Dias training and want to follow their example. Sometimes they come at the same time as Rafa and they can train side by side with him.”

Leao has developed a reputation as a supremely gifted winger but someone whose work effort on the pitch does not match his ability.

Leao is another player who has benefited from working with the gym (Loris Roselli/NurPhoto via Getty Images).

In December’s 2-1 Champions League win against Crvena Zvezda, he scored a terrific goal after bursting in behind the defence and volleying home, but the commentators continued to focus on their perception of him.

“Lazy is different from relaxed,” says Martins. “The pressure is high in Italy after leading Milan to the championship in Italy and being considered the MVP, but Rafa is an incredible guy who grows every year in maturity and development.

“We started working together when he was just 17 and he was so observant. He is probably the athlete who identifies most with our work. Rafa’s explosive strength levels were already high for someone so young, but he needed to gain muscle mass and some weight to increase his game’s intensity level. Rafael has always been an intelligent boy, he knew that this work could be fundamental for his development.”

With so many games, it is not possible for the players based outside of the Portuguese clubs to do many in-person training sessions, so a lot of the work is done remotely via video or Martins travels to work with top clients, such as Leao.

Presumably, that must create tension with some clubs, who may not be overly pleased that their athlete is doing extra work outside their supervision.

“When it’s possible to establish a means of communication with the club’s sports science and medical department, things work just fine and it’s something that benefits the athlete,” he says.

“If both sides are aware of what load is being done with the athlete, it will increase the quality of work in both sides.

“I was there in November and the work is always done in the afternoon in agreement with the people at Milan. The exchange of information is essential to find a balance between what he does at the club and what he does throughout the season, so we are in constant contact.”

(Top photos: Ze Miranda, left, and Martins, right, have worked with Dias since he was a youngster; by Jordan Campbell, Getty Images)

Last week, we announced the start of our series on the Top 25 moments in Michigan athletics for the first 25 years of the 2000s. Today, we continue with No. 20-16, which includes several national championship-related items for the Michigan Wolverines.

20. Jake Moody saves season with game-winner against Illinois (2022)

There may not be a single game I have sweated over more in my life than Michigan vs Illinois in 2022. Just about everything that could have gone wrong in that game did. The Illini had a really good team coming into the Big House the week before the most highly anticipated Michigan-Ohio State game in a decade.

To make matters worse, Blake Corum went down with a knee injury right before halftime, putting the game and the season in jeopardy. But man oh man, thank goodness for Jake Moody. He went 4-for-4 in the game, including three fourth-quarter field goals and the eventual game-winner with about a minute left on the clock. The final kick came after a clutch fourth-down conversion from walk-on Isaiah Gash.

19. Michigan Men’s Gymnastics wins national title; Juda proposes (2025)

Paul Juda had a day to remember in late April, leading the way for the Michigan men’s gymnastics team to be crowned national champions while also becoming the Parallel Bars National Champion. Afterwards, he got down on one knee and got engaged:

The Wolverines accomplished this on their home turf in the Crisler Center, for the seventh national championship in program history. Fred Richard took home the NCAA All-Around Title to cap off one of the greatest seasons in program history.

18. Jourdan Lewis’ one-handed INT vs Wisconsin (2016)

A top-10 battle in 2016 between Michigan and Wisconsin was a nail-biter. Two elite defenses were taking turns flexing their muscles. Alex Hornibrook was forced to throw the ball late in the game with hopes of tying the game. Instead, he was picked off twice on the final two possessions to seal the win for Michigan. The last was one of the most ridiculous picks you will ever see, coming from Michigan All-American Jourdan Lewis.

17. Denard Robinson hits Roy Roundtree to win vs ND under the lights (2011)

The first night game in the history of the Big House also included one of its best finishes. Late in the third quarter, Michigan was down, 24-7, and it felt like a blowout was on the way for the Fighting Irish.

Instead, quarterback Denard Robinson took off, leading one of the biggest fourth quarter comebacks in the rivalry’s history. Three touchdowns were scored in the final 1:20, and Michigan was on the right side of the finish as Robinson found Roy Roundtree in the end zone with two seconds left.

16. J.J. McCarthy salvages broken trick play in Rose Bowl (2024)

You will see a couple of moments from Michigan football’s national championship run as we continue in this series. One moment all fans will remember was J.J. McCarthy making a spectacular one-handed catch, doing a 360 and firing a bullet to Roman Wilson in the second quarter of the Rose Bowl:

The Wolverines finished the drive with a touchdown, giving them the lead before halftime.

For more in this series:

It’s been a while since Bomani Jones hosted his Raleigh-area sports talk radio shows, The Three-Hour Lunch Break on 620 The Bull, and Sports Saturday with Bomani Jones on 850 The Buzz. In the years since, he has been very successful with his The Right Time podcast, as well as his work at ESPN and HBO.

Jones recently appeared on Jon “Stugotz” Weiner’s podcast, where he lamented not being able to bring people together in digital media the same way that he once did with sports talk radio.

“I do miss it,” Jones admitted. “The coolest thing about radio to me, and why I enjoy it over every other medium, is that the community that surrounds it is always so much more intimate, and always like much closer.”

Jones mentioned a book he read that argued that more communication doesn’t necessarily bring people closer together. He then emphasized that by allowing live call-ins, sports radio helps bridge the gap between people and enables them to connect on a personal level.

“Doing the jobs that we do, especially like in the face of social media and everything else. You talk more and more, and you’re going to reach a point where you say something, or you’ve evolved and changed in such ways that somebody is not going to like it,” Jones said. “In radio, it was calls and people would call up to the radio station, and maybe they want to get one off on you because they’re upset with whatever it is that you’ve done… Where we all are now is the longer you do this and there’s no feedback mechanism and the radio creates the possibility of feedback mechanism…

“I miss when I did daily radio. There were five or six people that I knew I would talk to every day. They call in. They were happy to talk to me. I was happy to talk to them. We would hang out. In your life, you got no five people that are going to call you every day that you want to talk to.”

In the same vein, Jones touched on his belief that the closed network of podcasting, where audiences can only engage through comments after the fact, has had a diminishing effect on talent’s ability to connect with their audiences.

“You record it and you put it up, people are now more likely just to go b*tch about it on their own little platform than engage the person. Then the engagement is tough as the person now, because you get so much sh*t along the way that you can’t even tell who a real person is.”

We’re not exactly sure where the months went, but the calendar tells us that it is indeed June, which means it’s once again time for The Athletic’s annual MLB Player Poll.

Over the course of 2 1/2 months, from spring training until early May, our writers interviewed more than 135 players across 21 teams and granted them anonymity to get their honest takes on the idea of robo-umps, what they’ve heard — good and bad — about other organizations, misconceptions about the job, the impact of sports betting, which players they most enjoy watching while on the clock and much more.

This is not exactly a scientific poll — not every player we spoke to answered every question or provided a quote in support of their choice  — but it does provide an interesting look into the thoughts of those making up Major League Baseball in 2025.

Let’s get into it.

Note: Some player quotes have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

After several years —  and player polls —  of Shohei Ohtani running away with the “Who is the best player in baseball” prompt, we decided to reframe the question a bit and find out who players most enjoy watching play. In our minds, this question could be interpreted any number of ways. Whose style of play do they appreciate? Whose enthusiasm on the field is fun to watch? Any personal rubric would be accepted.

It turns out, after all that, that the prevailing answer was …  still Shohei Ohtani, who earned over 20 percent of the vote. (He probably would have had more, but as was the case last year, more than one player talked themselves out of naming him for fear of being unoriginal.)

Ohtani was followed by Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr., who collected a little over 10 percent of the responses. One player who voted for Witt summarized his reasoning nicely: “He’s quiet, goes about his work, balls out.”

In their own words

On Ohtani

“How can you honestly pick someone else?”

“It’s so hard to get him out. What he does, I don’t know if we’ll ever see it again.”

“He makes it look too easy.”

“Shohei being able to do both, it just doesn’t make any sense. There aren’t enough hours in the day to work on your craft for both.”

“The versatility obviously stands out. He’s always prepared, no matter who the pitcher is.”

“He’s a big moment waiting to happen, especially with the bat. I think people have forgotten about him as a pitcher and he’s electric. Hopefully, you never know coming back from a second Tommy John. The team he plays for is always on TV, he’s really good and always works a good at-bat, always puts the ball in play.”

“He’s a cheat code.”

“He’s the best MyPlayer you could ever create.”

“You’re watching someone have that kind of success on both sides of the ball. It’s so rare. Players are blown away by it as much — or more — than fans are.”

“He literally does everything. He might be the best baseball player ever. He probably is.”

“I really want to see him pitch again.”

“He has an opportunity to hit a homer every single at-bat, more opportunity to do something exciting.”

“It’s just going to be cool no matter what he does.”

“He’s an animal. He’s not from this world.”

On Witt

“He can steal bags, hit for power, play good shortstop.”

“He’s fast, he’s got power, he’s got a good arm, great glove, hustles, plays the game the right way, smart.”

“He’s awesome. He’s really great at every tool you want: defense, arm, speed, contact, power. Good guy. Fun to watch.”

“He doesn’t have crazy size like Judge or Ohtani; he’s pretty regular looking, but just (has) unbelievable talent. Last year was the first time I saw him live, and it was barrel, barrel, barrel. It was unreal.”

“His swing is so good.”

“Five-tool player. Athletic, plays a premium defensive position and plays it well. He’s fast and he’s even got another gear when he needs it. He does a lot of things the game of baseball is catered towards, and that’s what makes him so exciting.”

“His defense is great, offense. I think he’s got it all. I like watching him play.”

“He plays my position and he does everything at an elite level.”

On Acuña

“That guy’s a freak of nature.”

“Everything. He does everything. Hitting. Power. Running. Defense.”

“His swag is very electric. First-pitch homer, that was crazy. How he runs the bases, how he swings. Everything is special about him. … I’d pay for a ticket to see him.”

On De La Cruz 

“Seems like he has a lot of fun, like I play.”

“It’s going to be something different every day. It’s not always the speed, sometimes he’ll run into a ball. Sometimes he’ll make a sick play and go into the hole and throw the guy out to start a game.”

“He’s probably the fastest guy in the league, and he seems to always have fun when he’s playing. He’s electric.”

“It’s kind of a cool skill set he has — the base stealing, the power, the big arm. He has all the weapons and his ceiling is extremely high.”

“Elly’s pretty fun to watch, except when he’s running all over us.”

On Betts

“Does everything well. Incredible athlete. Just the modern five-tool player. You see guys go from the infield to the outfield; he did the opposite. It’s pretty impressive.”

“Just the way he plays the game, the way he can be a Gold Glove right fielder and play shortstop, too. His athleticism and his swing.”

“He’s the most athletic player in the game and it seems like he’s always having fun.”

On Judge

“I wish I was as big and strong as him. He does things that only he can do on the baseball field. I feel lucky that I get to watch him every day.”

“People love power and offense. Every time he steps to the plate, you expect something special.”

“He can do it all.”

“He just hits the ball so hard.”

On Lindor

“Just the way he brings passion to the game.”

“He’s my favorite player. He’s a baller. Five-tool player.”

“He impacts the game in so many ways — hitting, defense and base running, all with a style to him.”

On Skenes

“Man, he’s nasty. I think he’s going to end up being the best pitcher in the sport, if he’s not already. It’s kind of crazy, too, because he’s so young. I can’t wait to see how he’s going to get better over the next few years.”

On Harris

“Defensively, he’s incredible. He does things most people can’t do. Offensively, it’s always fun to watch guys. But defensively, that’s where you show your true athleticism. But he does things I’ve never seen anybody else do.”

“He just has so much fun. He’s got some swag.”

On Harper

“He’s the guy that if he comes off injury, he’s going 4-for-4 with three homers. If he’s getting booed at a stadium, he’s going to hit a homer. He has that clutch gene in him.”

“Loved the feel he had for the moment in London.”

It probably should surprise no one that the current highest-paid player in MLB history tops this list with 15.6 percent of the vote, especially when you consider we began our polling roughly two months after the 26-year-old signed his historic 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets this past offseason. But pitchers had a lot to say about what makes Soto such a fearsome hitter, and it starts with his patience at the plate.

“He doesn’t swing at a lot of crap,” said one NL pitcher. “Not a lot of swing-and-miss in his game and he can do damage.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Shohei Ohtani (14.1 percent) and Aaron Judge (9.4 percent)  round out this year’s top three.

In their own words

On Soto

“He’s very disciplined. Just seems like he doesn’t hit anything soft. Anything in the zone, he puts the barrel on it. His discipline is almost intimidating, for lack of a better word. Especially in a leverage situation, it’s like you have to make a perfect pitch.”

“His ability to have plate discipline, no whiff and power is really, really difficult to face. There aren’t many guys who have the power to hit like that but not the whiff. He hits mistakes every time. He doesn’t chase.”

“It’s ridiculous. If there’s a moment where he can turn it on, he’s just able to do it. It’s crazy.”

“He has amazing control of the strike zone. You know he’s probably not going to chase. He also has insane power and can hit the ball to all fields. He’s such a tough out.”

On Ohtani

“Oh, I have nothing for him. That’s a tough at-bat for me.”

“He’s the best hitter right now.”

“He’s one of those guys who knows his strengths, knows his strike zone. He has that idea when he steps in the box, that feeling of he knows what he’s going to do.”

 On Judge

“He rakes against me.”

“He puts fear in pitchers even when he’s not due up in the inning. You’re wondering about him the next inning.”

 On Alvarez

“That guy owns me. He’s my nemesis.”

On Freeman

“I think he showed it last year in the postseason. Goodness gracious.”

On Betts

“Honestly, just a great hitter.”

On Ramírez

“Bat-to-ball lefties are hard for me. José is a really tough matchup.”

“He’s been tough to pitch against.”

“He’s very clutch.”

“He’s just a consistent hitter throughout. Doesn’t have a whole lot of holes, he’s just a hitter that we have to flip the script on every game throughout the series. Whatever we do in Game 1, we can’t do in Game 2 because he’ll be hunting that. He’s making adjustments on the fly and it makes scouting him that much harder.”

On Witt

“Super explosive contact-wise and power-wise. You can’t cheat him.”

On Harper

“He comes through in clutch situations.”

“Smart hitter, doesn’t miss, not a lot of holes. He punishes the ball. It looks like he welcomes those moments.”

The first and last time we posed this question to players was back in 2018, and amazingly, there are still a few holdovers here from that inaugural poll.

One thing is clear: Hitters did not want to see Chris Sale back then, and they don’t sound all that excited about the potential of seeing him now, either. The 36-year-old and eight-time All-Star was a runner-up in that original poll but lands on top of this year’s list with 16 percent of the vote. Our respondents had a lot to say about why, but one word kept coming up again and again (and again).

In their own words

On Sale

“Nasty.”

“He was untouchable last year. When you win all three categories in the Triple Crown, it’s hard to name anyone else.”

“You want the challenge but he’s just nasty.”

“He’s nasty. I got one hit off him already, so I know I’m probably never going to get another one ever again.”

On Skubal

“In my opinion, he has a decent lead over anybody else. His fastball is so good, and last year he made a real effort to throw other pitches and keep hitters off-balance. The fastball sets up the changeup, and it just gets on you so quick. The hitters are so uncomfortable.”

“He’s nasty for everybody. Everything’s really hard, his changeup’s really good. Hard to pick up. Everything’s kind of funky coming out of all of the stuff he does.”

“I hit better from the left side, and he feels so challenging hitting from the left side. He might be the best pitcher in the game.”

On Wheeler

“Really smart pitcher who just keeps getting better and has multiple ways to get you out.”

On Chapman

“(Wouldn’t want to face him) in his prime.”

“I’m going with Aroldis because he throws so hard and is kind of wild on the mound. You don’t really know where the ball is going to end up. It would be a tough at-bat if he’s on and still nerve-racking when he’s off.”

On Duran

“I faced him in the minors when he was a starter and he was electric then — but now that he’s throwing just one inning and giving it everything he’s got? He’s just taken it to another level.”

On Skenes

“I know he won’t be there (because of the Pirates), but he’s nasty. His control glove side to lefties, I’ve never seen before in my life. Throwing 102 up and in for strikes? Then hipping a 96 mph sinker that starts in on you? You can’t pull the trigger on that. Then once you do, you foul one off, and then he throws an 88-mph changeup away. What do you do? I faced him maybe 8 or 9 times and it’s hard to form an approach off of him. He’s very mature for his age.”

“Have you seen the movement on his pitches? It’s crazy.”

On Strider

“His stuff. His fastball does different thing. It cuts sometimes if it’s in. If it’s up, it’s going to rise. If it’s low, it can rise or stay low. He can throw off the hitter and has good secondary stuff as well and has command of all his pitches. When I faced him, it wasn’t fun.”

“He will remind people why this year. His stuff is crazy.”

On Treinen

“Blake Treinen’s slider. For nine straight innings.”

On Valdez

“I cannot square (up) his stuff. Any pitch he throws me, I feel like I’m just beating it into the ground.”

“He’s always tough. He’s always given me a hard time. He’s tough in the postseason.”

On King

“He crossfires and throws sinkers hard, like 98 mph. The slider, big slider. It’s going everywhere.”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photo of Shohei Ohtani: Harry How; Chris Sale: Todd Kirkland; Juan Soto: Mary DeCicco / MLB Photos / Getty Images)

What if we told you that the biggest business opportunity in swimming isn’t a tech suit, a sponsorship deal, or a world record — it’s the lane next to the one you grew up training in?

In this episode of the SwimSwam Podcast, we dive into one of the most overlooked and underestimated business models in sport: learn-to-swim.

Our guest? Two-time Olympian, NCAA Champion, and now CEO of Fintastic Swim Academy & Fintastic Brands — Nimrod Shapira. He launched his swim school with just $482 and zero outside investment. Today? It’s a multi-million dollar business that just exited to private equity — and he’s not done.

We talk big picture:

• Why swimming isn’t a failed business model — it’s just misunderstood.

• The $1 billion opportunity hiding in plain sight.

• How elite swimmers are sitting on a superpower they’ve never been taught to use.

• Why “mission with a margin” should be your mantra.

We also get personal:

• The breakthrough moment when Nimrod realized this could actually work.

• The mental edge that helped him survive scaling and setbacks.

• Lessons from selling his company — and how he’s now helping others do the same.

If you’ve ever wondered how to stay in the sport, make a difference and make a living — this episode is for you.

In the SwimSwam Podcast dive deeper into the sport you love with insider conversations about swimming. Hosted by Coleman Hodges and Gold Medal Mel Stewart, SwimSwam welcomes both the biggest names in swimming that you already know, and rising stars that you need to get to know, as we break down the past, present, and future of aquatic sports.

Music: Otis McDonald
www.otismacmusic.com

Opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the interviewed guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the hosts, SwimSwam Partners, LLC and/or SwimSwam advertising partners.

Fintastic is a SwimSwam partner.