The training entrances are the new obsession of football

It was 2010 when cameras made their way into the depths of Serie A. As reported in this article - a true digital relic - the footage clearly captured more intimate and personal details. To mention one, Sergio Bernardo Almirón kept a postcard near his seat; on the other hand, Luca Toni seemed simply amused and surprised by this new introduction. In that case, the negative comments were not limited. Numerous discussions about the sensationalization of the sanctity of the locker room began to emerge – in short, not everyone liked this novelty. Comments regarding crude voyeurism that was slowly increasing reached their peak - at least in our country - with the release of the documentary All or Nothing: Juventus, a clear example where the privacy of Juventus players and staff was torn to shreds. Football teams thus faced a very challenging mission: finding a compromise between entertainment and "respect" for what, in football, is covered by a sacred aura. Mission accomplished, thanks to training entrances.

This is a new practice adopted by some Serie A clubs. It's very simple: content creators, videomakers, or social media managers of the teams wait for the players' entrance to the training fields and film their reactions in front of the camera. More than the gesture itself, what deserves consideration is everything it represents for the players and fans. The videos in question are shot - and consequently posted on the club's social channels - mainly when the team is coming off a victory, usually at the weekly training session. Therefore, if a club emerges victorious from a weekend match, it's very likely that on Monday, at the resumption of training, players from some clubs, in high spirits, will be immortalized to greet the cameras. The clubs currently focusing more on this social strategy are Juventus and Inter, with the latter making viral the clip in which Marcus Thuram and Hakan Çalhanoğlu simultaneously tread on the turf while the former exclaims, "Buongiorno fratema, buongiorno compa!". Juventus, on the other hand, turned one of its many training entrances into a unique opportunity to memorize the steps of the Stabble Dance, the latest dance by Weston McKennie and Moise Kean that the Italian revealed celebrating (after his goals were then disallowed) in the game played by Juventus against Hellas Verona. We can expect that many international clubs may sooner or later approach this type of content: for example, Aston Villa has already done it, perhaps expecting the "Buongiorno!" uttered by Nicolò Zaniolo.

This increasingly widespread practice offers clubs the opportunity to create greater closeness and empathy between fans and athletes. Perhaps it's because the moments leading up to the first training of the week for upcoming matches are not yet filled with concern and concentration, or probably just because they allow us to discover sides of the players that we can hardly notice on other occasions. The fact is that training entrances don't seem to divide public opinion as it happened when locker room shots were introduced. Today, training entrances seem to work: they are not too invasive, manage to entertain, and above all, being set up to be shared on social networks (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter), they are short and much more enjoyable, thus avoiding moments of embarrassment. Moreover, they can turn into veiled marketing strategies. For example, Juventus showed off the new yellow training kit during the filming of a training entrance as a tribute to Giorgio Chiellini. Italian football has learned a small - and in its own way important - lesson.