FC Barcelona players banned from playing padel. What is padel?

As the 2023-24 season enters into a critical phase with the bigger clubs set for two games per week with LaLiga, Champions League and Copa del Rey action, it’s inevitable that many teams will look to squad rotation. However, as things stand with key domestic and European games coming thick and fast, it’s not an exaggeration to say Barcelona are currently plagued with injuries.

While some players, such as Robert Lewandowski, Frenkie de Jong and Jules Koundé, have been struck down by knocks suffered in the heat of the battle on the field, others have sidelined by unexpected muscle injuries, such as Pedri, Raphinha and Ronald Araújo.

Faced with more than half a team on the sidelines, the Catalan club have taken steps to ensure no players take unnecessary risks with head coach Xavi Hernandez laying out new guidelines and training regimes.

As tends to be the case in professional soccer across the board, players are completely prohibited from participating in high-risk physical activities, from obvious ones such as skydiving or mountain climbing, to less “extreme” sports such as cycling.

As a result of Barça’s recent fitness issues, the current squad have also been told not take part in any sporting activities away from the training ground, which includes playing basketball, jogging or playing padel.

What is padel?

Padel or padel tennis as it’s also known is a racket sport which originated in Mexico in the late 60s and is typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Although padel shares the same scoring system as tennis, the rules, strokes, and technique are different.

Padel is particularly popular in Argentina and Spain and is a relatively easy sport to play and is popular with football players as it does not require extraordinary physical fitness to start playing and which allows you to socialise, as you can play paddle with family and friends.

The sport is one of the world’s fastest growing in the world and is starting to see high levels of interest in Northern Europe and the USA with Jurgen Klopp such a fan that he insisted in installing a court at Liverpool’s Melwood training complex.

Many former players have transitioned into padel with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic opening a series of courts in his native Sweden and Italy and former Arsenal and Man United striker Robin Van Persie launching a padel inspired clothing range.

Just this week alone, Usain Bolt posted a picture playing the sport on his Instagram and Twitter profiles with David Beckham another convert to the game with the current Inter Miami shareholder recently playing in the Reserve Cup competition staged in Southern Florida.

Premier League giants Manchester United too were keen to show some love for the sport with the club posting a social media message featuring a short video with Portuguese star Diogo Dalot explaining some basics about one of the fastest growing sports in the world.