For patriotic reasons, she made herself available to the Serbian national football team for free before the World Cup, but the coach and our professional staff did not want a psychologist in the team. In the game with Cameroon, with a 3:1 lead, four of our players were completely out of balance, and that would not have happened if we had a psychologist in the team, said Sredanović.
Saša Sredanović graduated in clinical psychology in the Netherlands, where she opted for sports psychology in football. She worked in Slovenia, then in Atlético Madrid, then in Betis. Her work did not go unnoticed, so Barcelona bought Sasha’s contract, paid compensation to Betis and signed a six-year contract with her. Sredanović is also engaged in the famous Barcelona football academy La Masia, where she works with football coaches.
The mental-emotional factor greatly affects the individual and team performances of the entire football team. The psychologist will teach the modern football player to give the best part of himself every day, to be self-confident, to know how to manage frustrations, to know how to live and work in harmony with his teammates, to be resilient when personal and professional difficult situations, failures occur , unforeseen events, simply put, to be in balance….
“We saw France in Qatar, which I consider to be the most psychologically prepared team, which, even without five players, seems very compact because it solves that deficiency in certain situations with that balance, and the balance is a professional psychological part, it’s not a coaching part.”
“A psychologist puts a player in balance, he can’t do that alone. Of course, I am in contact with my colleagues who work in the strongest European championships in Spain, Germany, France, England… They all took two or three psychologists to Qatar! In those leagues , for example, each line – attack, midfield and defense – has a special psychologist, because attackers and defense players do not think in the same way,” says Sredanović.
Sports psychology emphasizes that the coach is the main strategist of the team. However, he should not deal with potential conflicts in the dressing room, players’ attitudes and beliefs, tensions in the coaching staff… With the help of a sports psychologist, the coach understands why his team behaves this way or that way, but this does not jeopardize the coach’s leadership and his image remains intact.
“I offered the Football Association of Serbia free of charge to put all my experience and knowledge at the disposal of our football team, players, and my country in Qatar and give my best.”
And the absence of experts of this profile in our team was most visible in the game with Cameroon, when we overturned the score and took a 3:1 lead and then in two minutes lost a big advantage:
“Every player enters the game to win, but, as a professional with the experience of playing in fantastic clubs, in the most important competition, you must not let your emotions overcome you so much during the game and throw you out of balance. In my estimation, that’s when the downfall occurred balance and focus, which are extremely important. Because when the balance falls, the player’s concentration falls, and then his fitness falls.”
“For us, four players were completely out of focus at that moment, I watched it. And this is where the role of the sports psychologist is reflected, who would put those players in balance and focus before the match, which means: lose or win, you only look at the end outcome and you’re going towards your goal. Even though you’re leading 2:0, no, it’s not enough, because you’re going to 4:0!.”
Saša Sredanović points out that the players of Serbia, essentially, play a nice, attractive attacking football.
“But the World Cup in Qatar is still something completely different compared to all the previous games. We had a great winning streak, and a coach who has an impressive football career. Now, he did the motivational part, on the surface, excellently and we had a successful balance. But, from a professional point of view, that is not enough for the World Cup, where 32 of the most prepared, best teams on the planet are competing, which certainly have psychologists in their coaching staffs, who deal with the player’s psyche, which is just as important as the physical readiness. If there is an injury, a misunderstanding between the football player and the coach or any other problem that can deconcentrate the player, there are psychologists. The coaches are in charge of tactics and technique.”
“Football has progressed a lot in all segments as a game in the last ten years, so psychology has become an indispensable part of modern football. In football, we have 11 heads on the field who do not think in the same way. That’s why we first put the 11 collectively in the same balance, and then we work with each of them individually.”
Saša Sredanović points out that there are a large number of great sports psychologists in Serbia.
“Former volleyball player Andrija Gerić is not a psychologist, but she has an excellent command of psychological techniques, we have Marijana Gulan, whom I mentor, who I claim is fantastic,” says Sredanović.
The fact is that they were the first to realize the importance of a sports psychologist in the process of achieving high results on the international stage of water polo players – so our water polo team hired a sports psychologist, albeit secretly, back in 1988 in preparation for the Olympic Games in Seoul. It is also a fact that all Serbian athletes who won a medal at the Olympic Games and other major competitions in the last 15 years had a sports psychologist on their staff.
We asked Saša Sredanović how much the Barcelona football club’s game depends on her analyzes and assessments and how much coach Xavi Hernandez respects her expert opinion.
“Well, honestly, a lot. Everyone does their part of the job, and when we analyze the game, a psychologist is always present. I have to monitor many segments of the opposing players’ game… for example, gestures, so that our players can better prepare and stabilize themselves for the match that awaits them. The task is to bring them into balance, because it is not good for them to rise too high, but also to be below their level. We enter every game with motivation, with desire and conviction, but with a cool head, without any euphoria, with one goal: to win!”
Saša Sredanović signed a six-year contract with Barcelona, precisely at the insistence of the coach of the Catalan team, Xavi Hernandez, who was fascinated by the results of her work at Betis. Barcelona paid compensation for the termination of the contract and the transfer of Saša Sredanović to Barcelona.
