School kids take a few weeks off around the Christmas-New Year's Day holidays for granted. As reported by Sam Borden in today's New York Times, some soccer players get that time and more off when many of the European leagues take a break lasting as long as two months. The reason is simply because of the cold weather in places like Switzerland.
“They say German teams have an advantage (against teams from other countries) because of the winter break,
and you see it in the players’ legs in summer. Obviously, England has no
break, and so a connection to the national team’s results is easy to
make,” German author Uli Hess is quoted as saying.
It's not actually a full vacation for the players, Borden writes. Many of the teams establish training camps in warmer climates during the break. Switzerland's top team, FC Basel, for example, is working out on the southern coast of Spain to prepare for its next Champions League match, while Bayern München of the German Bundesliga practiced in Dubai.
It's sort of like baseball's spring training - a more relaxed atmosphere in warm weather where coaches can work on a few things and check out some new players - but in the middle of the season.
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