At 27, the footballer Nicolas Tagliafico is a member of Ajax Amsterdam, with whom he played his third season this year, and of the Argentine national team, of which he is vice-captain, behind Lionel Messi. In an interview with The world, he gives his feelings on the stoppage of the championship in the Netherlands, the cacophony between the different European leagues and the place of the footballer in the current crisis.
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How did you experience this period of confinement?
Here in Amsterdam, quarantine has been fairly quiet. The government allows us to go out, as long as we stay within a meter of each other. Obviously, it's better to stay at home, but you can go run at the park. The situation begins to normalize, we gradually find a routine.
At Ajax, we resumed training last week. These are not the usual training sessions: we are in groups of three, we don't touch each other, we use latex gloves. It feels good to find the ground and touch the ball.
The Netherlands were the first to decide to end the national football championship. The only ones, too, to declare a white season. How was it experienced by the players?
Everything that has happened since the start of this crisis is atypical. After such a long stop, we knew it would be very difficult to resume competition. Since the government has decided to suspend all sporting events until 1er September, it was clear that the championship was over. They decided that there would be no champion this year.
On the one hand, it’s frustrating, or sad, not being able to compete for the title until the end, or at least playing a match against AZ Alkmaar (Eredivisie co-leader with Ajax Amsterdam at the time of the stop) to decide between us. When you've been fighting for months, having to stop everything nine days from the end leaves you with a bitter taste. On the other hand, we understand that this is an extreme situation, so we must respect this decision.
A number of clubs have challenged the decision, wishing to end the season for economic reasons. How did the players react?
Today, if you have to choose between economics and health, of course, you have to choose health. Sooner or later, the economy can recover. Not health. You have to have that in mind, and listen to what the health authorities are saying. If they say it's better to wait before resuming competition, you have to accept it. We all wanted to go on and play the title, but there are more important things than football.
The good news is that the world looks better than it did two weeks ago. I hope it will be even better in two weeks. For us, now, the goal is to keep pace and be ready for September.
In France, the season is also over. Other European championships, on the other hand, intend to resume fairly quickly and play behind closed doors. Does this lack of harmony cause misunderstandings?
From one country to another, they are different approaches and actors. Major leagues, like the English Premier League or the Spanish Liga, need to go all the way to avoid losing too much money, so they try to delay the deadline as much as possible to give themselves a chance to finish on time. Here in the Netherlands, they saw no point in continuing to play in empty stadiums.
In France, perhaps the decision was easier to make, because PSG was so far ahead that the title was already played, even if that undoubtedly poses more problems for relegation and European qualifications.
In South America, too, there has been no unanimous decision, not just on football. In Argentina, faced with the damage the virus was causing in Europe, they decided to close everything as soon as possible. Some have found it premature, but when you see how few people are dead compared to others, you are doing well. Conversely, in Brazil, they did not take as many precautions, and today they suffer a lot.
Faced with economic difficulties, many clubs negotiate cuts or salary deferrals with the players. Is this the case at Ajax?
We talked to the leaders. Ajax has the advantage of being a club managed intelligently, with a long-term vision, which sells its players very well and which, therefore, is economically stable. For the moment, we have not touched our wages, but we have agreed that if the situation continues, we will reduce them by a certain percentage.
Television rights in the Netherlands are not as high as in other championships, but there could be loss of sponsors, in addition to ticketing. The idea would then be to help the club at different levels.
Valentin Rongier, midfielder for Marseille Olympique, said that without football, players are little. Do you feel the same?
In sports, or any other work where you owe the audience, it’s a strange feeling to lose that audience. A soccer player represents an institution, a club, an identity, behind which there is a community of fans, enthusiasts. They follow us, pay their subscriptions and make a club great. When they are not near us, something is missing, that special ingredient that makes all the difference.
The summer transfer window will be affected by the economic situation of the clubs. Is this a source of concern?
Clubs will think about it two or three times before making a decision. We will likely see fewer transfers worth tens of millions of euros. The beauty of this sport is that you have full stadiums, but you also see players moving from one club to another and making fans proud. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not concerned. The players affected by this slowdown risk being those who are worth very dearly.
What will post-crisis football look like?
I think it will return to what it was before the crisis, but there is going to be a transitional stage, with various measures to help the clubs to survive economically. This situation that we are going through must also serve us as an experience, we will have to be more united, more attentive to people, to the environment. It is by helping each other that the return to normal will be the fastest.
