FK Bodø/Glimt, playing in the top division of the Norwegian league and current runaway leaders of the Eliteserien by 16 points, overcame another COVID-19 obstacle using innovative methods. With the players going away on international duty for two weeks, players were at risk to test positive when rejoining the team.
Unfortunately for Glimt, one of their players Alfons Sampsted, ended up in isolation due to one of his teammates on the U21 Icelandic national team who tested positive for COVID-19, after the team arrived in Denmark for an away match against Luxembourg.
As a result, the player had to quarantine away from his Glimt teammates upon his return from international duty. To keep the player fit and match ready, the club provided Alfons Sampsted with their innovative wearable tracking technology to allow the club and the player to monitor and retain his fitness whilst training in isolation. The package was delivered by the club and left on the doorstep of the player’s home for him to start using the smart sensors.
UNO by Playermaker technology is the latest addition to their suite, two smart motion sensors that player’s attach directly to their boots and to measure football specific KPIs. The UNO allows the club to monitor the player remotely to its cloud based platform for the coaches to immediately review his performance in his home training schedule and adjust according to the player’s data.
“What I like the most is the way it can create a competition with myself even though I’m training alone. The results are so accurate that I know if I don’t give my best the Playermaker will tell me afterwards I lost to myself.” said Alfons Sampsted.
As long as Alfons followed these guidelines, he was able to replicate fitness and technical drills using the equipment provided with the data recorded on the clubs performance monitoring tool Playermaker.
Being separated from the team, the club is ensuring Alfons is training at the highest level for him to come out of self isolation and return to the starting line-up for the weekends game against Mjøndalen. A game in which Glimt comfortably won 2-0, leaving them with only 3 wins away from clinching their first Eliteserien title in the clubs history.
