Football is stealing executives from cycling

Starting from December 1st, AZ Alkmaar will have a new general director. His name is Merijn Zeeman, a 46-year-old Dutch executive who, in the official statement accompanying his appointment, says: "AZ is known for its working method, on and off the field. This culture, this vision, and this approach to work suit me perfectly." The detail that we have omitted so far is that Zeeman, despite being a sportsman, has never worked in the world of football. His last job was as General Director of Visma-Lease a Bike, the cycling team that, under the name of Jumbo-Visma, won the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Tour de France with Jonas Vingegaard. Zeeman was not only the general director of Jumbo-Visma but also the operational mind behind the team, which opened up to other sports to influence cycling. Zeeman confessed to taking inspiration from rugby and football to modify training methods in cycling, improve the athletes' nutrition plans, and even the overall management of races.

On some occasions, he even left the team car to follow the races and direct his cyclists from the team bus, borrowing the concept of the Team Principal sitting on the pit wall in Formula 1, alongside the track engineers. Then there is the most famous anecdote that the victory at the 2022 Tour de France was born after a conversation with Erik ten Haag, coach of Manchester United and his friend. In that conversation, ten Haag told Zeeman that a change was necessary to win, and from there, Zeeman set up an internal strategy of analysis and study that led him to the revelation that, in order to attack and beat Tadej Pogacar, it was necessary to set up a series of attacks on the climbs that preceded the final climb in crucial stages. A strategy that turned out to be successful. "Contamination" is the keyword to define Zeeman's work. In the past, he had already had the opportunity to enter the world of football but turned down the offer from Twente.

In recent months, as he confirmed in an interview with L'Equipe, he had been approached by big clubs in the Netherlands, but in the end, he chose AZ not only because he is from Alkmaar but also because: "AZ is a cutting-edge and innovative club that heavily relies on data. It is known for attracting professionals from other sports; the two directors who preceded me came from volleyball and baseball... It is an interesting opportunity for many clubs with limited budgets that aspire to compete: it is essential to be smarter than the opponents. In football, there is often resistance towards those who come from outside. We have to deal with this situation." The executive coming from baseball that Zeeman refers to is Robert Eenhoorn, a former MLB player who also brought Billy Beane, the former General Manager of the Oakland Athletics in MLB, to Alkmaar, whose role in "Moneyball" was played by Brad Pitt. A double hire that once again confirms AZ's desire to expand the boundaries of knowledge in the world of football, allowing themselves to be influenced by big data and models from other sports. This approach is gradually being adopted by other clubs in Europe.

The latest one to do so is Chelsea, who has hired Sachin Gupta, an analytics wizard who will leave his role as executive vice president of basketball operations at the Minnesota Timberwolves and, more generally, after over 18 years of service in the NBA. Going back to the combination of football and cycling, as reconstructed by Lo Slalom, there is the figure of Dave Brailsford, the man who introduced the concept of marginal gains in cycling with the Ineos Grenadiers team, now owned by Manchester United. The Athletic Club has decided to rely on Inigo San Millan for its athletic department, the man who in recent years has taken care of the physical preparation of Tadej Pogacar, the cannibal of cycling. Saying that the path is traced would be too much, it is more sensible to say that we are beginning to see a path, and this is what is taking football outside its boundaries. There is a need to update, to challenge oneself, to replace old patterns with new tools and knowledge, also relying on skills that come from different sports where, in recent years, new training methods and the use of analytics have been experimented with. Cutting-edge models that are now also arriving in the world of football.