Soccer Performance Conference 2021 – ONLINE

Martin Buchheit

Martin Buchheit has worked and consulted all over the world in various sports as a strength and conditioning coach, applied sports scientist and most recently as the Head of Performance at Paris Saint Germain. Using his background in strength and conditioning (2 Msc), statistics (1Msc) and a PhD in exercise physiology, Buchheit has developed Read more.. training and testing tools and has been published over 170 times. He co-founded HIITScience, a web platform and book focused on the use of HIIT for performance in elite sports, and launched Sport Performance & Scientist Reports, the first review-free open access scientific journal. Now, he steps into a role at Kitman Labs focused on conducting research across a variety of sports, geographies and topics.

Dr. Robin Thorpe

Dr. Robin Thorpe spent a decade (2009-2019) working as a Senior Performance Scientist and Conditioning Coach at Manchester United Football Club of the English Premier League. Robin worked with the First Team (under managers’ Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, Ryan Giggs, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer), Read more.. delivering performance and conditioning support to players whilst overseeing and managing fatigue, training load, recovery and regeneration practices throughout the Club as Head of Recovery and Regeneration. During this time Dr. Thorpe was part of a winning team achieving 10 national and international titles. Robin completed an applied PhD with Liverpool John Moores University investigating methods of fatigue and performance-monitoring, which has led to a number of original articles published in peer reviewed journals. Much of his work to date has centered around a model of monitoring the player response to stress in order to maximize athlete availability, training load prescription, performance and recovery and the reduction of injury and illness risk. Dr Thorpe also holds a position of Visiting Research Fellow at Liverpool John Moores Universtiy and Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University and has worked with many high-profile individual athletes in professional Golf and Boxing. Dr. Thorpe also assisted in the preparation of the Mexican national football team in the lead-up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In May of 2019, Dr. Thorpe accepted a position as Director of Performance & Innovation working with World Class Track and Field athletes including Olympic Gold Medalists and World Record Holders in the lead up to the Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020). As part of Dr. Thorpe’s role, he managed and directed an integrated performance framework which covers sports science, strength & conditioning and medical processes. Dr Thorpe was the Director of a novel performance lab which is an applied, contemporary performance & innovation hub involving applied and academic sports performance research in attempt to push the boundaries of sports innovation-science and knowledge to athletes, coaches and the industry as a whole. Most recently Dr. Thorpe has accepted consultancy roles in the NBA, MLB, MLS & PGA Tour as well as the tech giant Intel. Dr. Thorpe continues to conduct contemporary applied sports science & conditioning research and provides sports performance sleep science consultancies to a range of athletes and organisations.

Andreas Beck

Andreas Beck is the Head of Physical Performance, Prevention and Rehabilitation at Eintracht Frankfurt. He was also the High Performance Coach and Strength and Conditioning Coach for Borussia Dortmund for 8 years (from 2012 to 2020) and Strength and Conditioning Coach of FC Nuremberg for 5 years (from 2007 to 2012). Read more.. Andreas was born in Frankfurt Am Main, Germany on 1976 and he studied at Johann Wolfgang Goethe – Universität Frankfurt Am Main.

Dr. Med. Lutz Graumann

Dr. Lutz Graumann is a Medical Doctor specializing in Sports Medicine, Nutrition and Chirotherapy with focus on performance enhancement. Since the beginning of his medical studies in 1994, he conducted numerous researches in the USA, Canada and Germany as well as various foreign assignments with the German Armed Forces. Read more.. Dr. Lutz Graumann is the President of the Association of Performance Medicine, Head of Education at BLACKROLL®, Founder of Sportmedizin Rosenheim, Founder of Quest Vitality, Director of Performance Medicine at Tignum, Sports Medicine Consultant and Team Physician at the German Ice Hockey Federation, Creator of XROLL, Author of the best selling book “Functional Fascial Training with BLACKROLL®” and Guest Lecturer at varius Universities around the world.

Efthymios Kyprianou

Efthymios Kyprianou holds a Sports Science degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an MSc in Sports Coaching & Management from Kingston University, London. He is currently a PhD Candidate at John Moores Liverpool university. Efthymios also holds a UEFA A’ coaching diploma. He is a professional Sport Scientist and Strength & Conditioning Coach, mainly focusing on team sports. Read more.. Efthymios is the author of the eBook “Balancing Physical & Tactical Load in Soccer: A Holistic Approach” which describes a novel approach to physical preparation for soccer players. He has been working for years with major clubs and teams, such as the OFI FC, Aspire Academy, Qatar Football Association, Cyprus National Soccer Team, AEL FC, Apollon Limassol FC and Apollon Ladies FC. His research area emphasizes on testing and monitoring soccer players in relation to maximizing their performance.

Callum Walsh

Callum Walsh is the Head of Sports Science at Newcastle United Football Club. Prior to that he worked for Aspire, EXOS, Wigan, Cardiff, Liverpool and Huddersfield. Callum holds a MSc, Strength and Conditioning from the University of Bolton (2009 – 2012) and a BSc (Hons), Sports Science and Football from Liverpool John Moores University. Read more.. Callum also holds a UEFA B’ Coaching license.

Miguel Angel Ramirez

Miguel Angel Ramirez is the first Spanish coach to win a Conbebol tournament: In 2019 he won the Copa Sudamericana as the head coach at Independiente Del Valle. He is currently the head coach of the MLS soccer team Charlotte FC and has also worked as a Head Coach in Qatar National team (under 14 and 17) and at Aspire Academy (under 13, 14 and 16). Loyal to his adventurous character – he did an Erasmus in Greece Read more.. where he made contact with several Spanish coaches -, he decided to start a new stage of six years at the Aspire Academy of Qatar as a coordinator of the technical work of youth divisions and he was responsible of the formative programme of Aspire Football Learning Programa thanks to Roberto Olabe. It is a project to form players that will compose the national team for the 2022 World Cup. He was the main coach of Qatar for several youth teams, he also was assistant of the Under 21 team until June 2018 when he moved to Ecuador to confront a great challenge: Managing the youth team of Independiente del Valle and applying all the knowledge he achieved on his previous years. On this period, the club conquered the Under 20 Libertadores Cup. Only one year later, in May 2019 and without seeing it coming, Ramírez was named first coach of the Ecuatorian team. It was his first great opoortunity on the bench of a team and he was as succesfull as ever: He conquered the title of the Southamerican Cup.

Vaggelis Lappas

Vaggelis was born on the 28th of March 1975 in Athens. Playing the game since he was a little boy, he decided to establish himself as a goalkeeper coach. He holds the UEFA A coaching license, UEFA B Goalkeeping license & AFC-GK Level 1. He has attended many international training seminars and he has participated in the last 8 years as a speaker at seminars and conferences in Greece and abroad. Read more.. He has personally organized several goalkeeping seminars as well. He started his coaching career with some youth training groups in the Academy of Amfiali FC, in 1998. Afterward, he worked in Aetos Korydallou FC (2001). Five years later he was promoted to the senior team of Sporting Union Perama FC. He continued his career in the teams of Moschato FC, Proodeftiki FC, Panelefsiniakos FC, Chaidari FC and Fostiras FC. In 2010 he joined the Academy of Panathinaikos FC. In the season 2015-16, he was the goalkeeper coach of the senior team of Panathinaikos FC. The seasons 2016-18, he was the goalkeeper coach in Al Dhafra FC in Abu Dhabi. In the season 2018-19, he was the Head Goalkeepers’ Coach in Academy of Olympiacos Fc. From 2019 he is the Head Goalkeeper coach of OFI Crete Fc.

Nectarios Alexandrou – MODERATOR

Nectarios Alexandrou is the Head Coach of Liverpool FC International Academy in Cyprus. He was a high profile successful football player, winner of 21 titles in Cyprus and Greece, with most of his career under APOEL F.C. He Appeared in most of the European Campaigns of the club in Champions League and Europa League, being the captain of the team for many years. Read more.. He holds a BA in Educational Science (primary teacher) and he is currently under the UEFA Youth Elite Coaching Diploma.