Padel news: Manchester Utd, Liverpool and the Premier League teams embracing padel in training
Having already successfully infiltrated tennis, padel is now working its way into every other sport – and football is the next target.
Of course, padel won’t ever replace the beautiful game, but it is certainly starting to merge with Premier League clubs at a rapid rate.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Vanely Barumire explains how your favourite teams are connected to the world’s fastest-growing sport.
Manchester United
When United announced its much-anticipated rebuild of the Trafford Training Centre, commonly known as Carrington, fans were overjoyed.
The development was taken as a sign of better things to come and a real signal of intent from the club’s owners.
Granted, it came at the cost of unprecedented lay-offs and financial cutbacks, but the 25-year-old facility needed some updates – and that’s where padel entered the picture.
As the fastest-growing sport in the world, especially in urban and metropolitan areas like Manchester, padel was included in the £50 million redevelopment plan.
This is no surprise considering numerous Red Devils – including Diogo Dalot and manager Ruben Amorim – play the sport and sought its inclusion in the new training set-up.
Whether or not padel helps the team foster better chemistry and put an end to the club’s contemporary struggle is anyone’s guess.
Liverpool
Jürgen Klopp’s impact on the current iteration of Liverpool is unmatched.
Influential in signing the club’s top goalscorer in the last 50 years, Mohamed Salah, he built a team capable of competing in both the UEFA Champions League and the Premier League.
However, adding to his already impressive resume, the German manager also introduced padel to the AXA Training Centre long before its meteoric rise.
A self-described padel addict, Klopp frequently paired with Pep Lijnders to play against Salah and former player Thiago Alcântara.
His post-Liverpool days still involve the racquet sport, with Klopp planning to open a padel club at the Mallorca Country Club in Santa Ponsa.
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Tottenham and Brentford
Sports journalist Oliver Holt recently described how a padel date with former Brentford manager Thomas Frank, who introduced the sport to the Bees, convinced him that the German would be the perfect boss for Tottenham.
In the Daily Mail, Holt wrote: “Frank has a talent for building a successful culture and improving it one step after another. He is a clever, innovative coach.”
At the end of the day, it is perhaps the social element of padel that makes it so appealing to football managers.
Frank, after all, led unheralded Brentford – boasting the second-lowest wage bill in the top flight – to 10th in the Premier League last term, with the chemistry between attacking duo Yoanne Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo one of the team’s biggest strengths.
With Frank now in charge at Tottenham, padel is likely to gain some new players in North London.
MORE FROM VANELY BARUMIRE: Padel news: Inside the racket sport’s dizzying takeover of Britain, from urban centres to rural farms
