The Legia Warsaw Academy is pleased to announce a partnership with Playermaker, the leading international football analysis company, whose discrete boot-mounted device tracks every step or foot-and-ball interaction.
Legia Warsaw Academy are now leading the way in football data analytics in Central Europe, becoming the first team to adopt the device – joining leading clubs in the UK, US, Latin America and Asia.
Łukasz Bortnik, head of physical preparation of the Legia first team said,
“Playermaker has a great potential and can change the way we assess, measure and analyse the volume and intensity of our players – we see this as a step towards our club entering a new level of assessing and improving our young players. As the device tracks every step and movement of the foot, our players will have access to a comprehensive breakdown of the biomechanical load on their lower limbs, as well as an in-depth gait analysis. This information will provide us with an early warning system to repeat injuries, helping us keep our players at the top of their fitness.”
The device collects datapoints which are processed in the cloud and analyzed against the largest dataset of football movements in the world, pulling out technical, tactical and physical indicators for evaluation by players, coaches, and managers. After regular training sessions Legia’s coaching staff will get thorough analysis of each player and the team as a whole, including pace, distance, kicking force and passing network. Coaches will then use this insight to enhance their training sessions, using cameras to automatically tag each individual player’s ball possession, and create a personalized player video highlights reel.
Legia Warsaw will be opening a new Academy infrastructure named Legia Training Center in 2020, which will concentrate on individual and team optimization and talent identification for future star players. Legia Warsaw have been instrumental in leading the rollout of new technology and training methodologies in Poland, and across Europe, and see their adoption of Playermaker as a sign of continued adoption throughout the region.
Playermaker CEO Guy Aharon added “At PlayerMaker, we are extremely excited to begin working with Legia Warsaw, a truly iconic European football club. We are privileged to start working with them at such a pivotal time as they open their LegiaLab facility and I’m pleased to see a leading club investing in data and technology, which over the years, will unquestionably help them to keep a significant competitive advantage.
Playermaker:
Playermaker is a players’ performance platform, using motion sensors that are mounted on the players’ boots. Using AI algorithms, their device tracks and analyzes all technical, tactical, biomechanical and physical movement on and off the ball, giving managers, coaches and players a granular understanding of their performance. Used by hundreds of teams worldwide, from elite to recreational, the PlayerMaker device delivers a competitive advantage to some of the most forward-thinking teams.
About Legia Academy:
The Legia Academy is one of the leading soccer schools in Poland, giving aspiring players the best chance of making a career in professional football. In the 2018/19 season 64 players from the Academy started a professional career.