The average Iron One

25.37 years old, 1.84 meters tall, nearly 81 kilograms heavy, and with shoe size 42 1/2 on the way to the training ground. This is what the average Union player looks like during the summer training camp in Irdning.

What at first glance seems like a dry description of a person tells, upon closer inspection, the story of five intense days in Styria. Nearly everything surrounding the Eisernen can be expressed in numbers.

A morning on the pitch

Let's start where almost everything takes place during the training camp: on the grass. In a training session, the average Union player covers 6.21 kilometers. He achieves peak speeds of around 26 km/h and completes an average of 44 intense runs. All players together accumulate a total of 130.45 kilometers of running distance in just one session.

Not bad for a pitch where approximately 267,750,000 blades of grass are estimated to grow. The playing field is surrounded by 278 meters of advertising boards, while eight large goals wait for their playing time. And the spectators are rarely absent: an average of 327 fans watch the sessions on-site. Additionally, around eight cows regularly join from the surrounding fields, of which at least two seem particularly interested in the proceedings according to observations from the training camp editorial team.

Goals, pictures, and autographs

Those who believe a training session consists solely of running and sweating are only partially correct. On average, 67 goals are scored during one session. At the same time, about 3,000 photos are taken, and around 48 autographs are written afterwards. This means the training camp provides not only content for coaches and players but also for photographers, journalists, and of course the fans on the sidelines.

The Body as a High-Performance Machine

So much movement leaves traces: An average player burns around 3,655 calories per day. To cope with this strain, the average Union professional sleeps eight hours and 16 minutes per night. Recovery is also in full swing. About 18 kilograms of ice cubes are needed daily for the ice baths, which is approximately 900 individual ice cubes.

If someone still feels tense afterward, they can count on the support of the medical team. Overall, the physiotherapists provide about 30 hours of treatment work each day. Calculated per team member, this means that each player receives more than one hour of care.

Behind the Scenes

But not only the players are doing heavy work; between 65 and 70 kilograms of laundry pass through the hands of the operations team every day. Additionally, around 100 meters of tape and another 80 meters of breathable gauze are used per training session. This is accompanied by two to three media talks daily, numerous organizational tasks, and plenty of invisible work behind the scenes. In other words: Behind every number is a little bit of Union.

With today’s training, the chapter of daily training in Irdning also came to an end. The many numbers from the past days tell of hard work, intensive sessions, and meticulous preparation. Tomorrow, Sunday, the sporting conclusion of the training camp awaits with the Friendly against Aris Limassol FC in Salzburg. There, it will become evident what the team has worked on in the past days, before heading to Munich and back to their Berlin home on Monday.

Quote of the Day: “I’m going to crash the wedding now”, announced Horst Heldt with a wink as he walked past the party guests in front of the team hotel.

The diary entries at a glance: