Episode 1: Laura Clergue embarks on her new life as a professional footballer World Padel Tour. She is training in Madrid and preparing for the 2017 season.

"There is still work!"

From December 15 to 19, I took advantage of the nice opportunity of World Padel Tour Master Final to organize a short stay in Madrid. This trip allowed me to see simply amazing matches but also to bathe a little in what will be my new life. For the moment, I find the atmosphere rather relaxed and nice even if it is always frustrating to be only a spectator but what a spectacle! There is work! 😅
During the various stays that I was able to do in Spain during the past year but also international events such as the European Championships and the World Championships I have already been able to meet players and members of the staff of the World Padel Tour who always welcome us with open arms and with incredible sympathy despite the language barrier.
Of course, I hope that my official welcome on the circuit will be just as good. But I think that all the actors of the World Padel Tour are finally happy to see that it is internationalizing but also to see some new faces in this world which ultimately remains quite closed and in which everyone knows each other.

My future sponsors

This week represented an important issue for me because it should allow me to make a first contact with some of my future sponsors such as BullPadel but also with my future academy and my future club, where I will still spend 80% of my time next year, ie my future home. So I met the whole team of BullPadel which has been really great to me. They presented me with the new material for the year 2017, which I was really looking forward to seeing! The most important thing for me was to be able to test snowshoes, my working tool next year. They left them to me on loan along with the shoes for my brief return to France so that I could find the model that suited me best.

 The Monte Carlo International Sports Academy

I then took advantage of my stay in Madrid to find an apartment and spend time with my future coach to organize everything within the Monte Carlo International Sport Academy located at the Sport Center Manolo Santana in the west of Madrid.
Mission completely successful because I found a home. To start I will live in a big house near the club (5 minutes) with a lady. The house is perfectly arranged as it has a bedroom, a bathroom with an independent entrance so I am convinced that I will feel good in this accommodation for at least the first months. I think that once there I will be able to see if this accommodation suits me, and I will be more willing to know where I want to live and with whom. 😉

 My future

Finally, we discussed with my coach the organization of my typical weeks, the competitions I'm going to participate in, my work pace, the mentality I was going to have, my future potential teammates, my sponsors, short of my new life. It made me very crazy to debrief a little with him of all this because all these questions had been trotting in my head for a while and I am glad to have discussed with someone who knew the answers!
The essential information is that my trip to Madrid by car is scheduled for the January 13 in order to be fit for my first individual training the January 19.
In the meantime, place the last administrative steps, the finalization of luggage, without forgetting to continue to maintain a minimum physical level to be ready from the first training!
All the information on my first weeks in Madrid and my training team in the next episode.
Thank you for following me ! 😘
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lauraclerguepadel
Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.