He would argue that he simply demands high standards from everybody, from nobody more than himself, his commitment to self-improvement having made him the fifth-most prolific striker in Argentinian history, scoring 200 goals in 260 appearances for San Lorenzo and 21 in 29 for the national side. “I invented the Sanfigo,” he said, “a big cage with a wall the size of a goal that I’d use for practicing, divided into squares of eighty centimeters [30 inches] by eighty centimeters. The most important corners were the lower ones, la ratonera, the mouse’s nest. Practicing everyday was fundamental. Hitting the lower corners is safer than the upper corners, but you need to hone your precision because you’re giving twenty-one feet to the goalkeeper. So I’d need to know how to aim and hit those lower corners, from every position.”

Wilson, Jonathan. Angels With Dirty Faces: How Argentinian Football Defined a Nation and Changed the Game Forever. New York: Nation Books, 2016 (see page 108)

The World Cup ticks on.

José Sanfilippo is an Argentine striker you also probably never heard of. His training methods were ahead of their time. Long before Eddie Lewis‘s TOCA touch trainer, José Sanfilippo created the Sanfigo to hone his ball striking technique.

I wonder what Gonçalo Ramos’s training methods are?