Bad news for cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar: An important confidant of the Slovenian will leave the UAE Emirates team and continue his career in the first Spanish football league. He is not the first to take this step.
From now on, Tadej Pogacar has to make do with one of his long-standing and most important confidants at the UAE Emirates team. It was announced this week that Joseba Elguezabal will leave the cycling business and join Spanish football club Athletic Bilbao with immediate effect.
Until recently, Elguezabal worked as the Slovenian superstar’s chief masseur and also held the role of the so-called soigneur. The Spaniard was usually the first employee to receive Pogacar after he had reached the finish line and to look after him. His role went far beyond that of a “normal” masseur.
From cycling to football
Sources within the team spoke to the Spanish sports newspaper “AS” about a “unique opportunity” for Elguezabal, who is now one of a large number of employees from the cycling business who are switching to the football industry.
Another extremely prominent example of this path is Merijn Zeeman, the former sports director of Vingegaard’s Visma team. He now works for the Dutch first division club AZ Alkmaar. Physiotherapist Íñigo San Millán also swapped sides and moved from UAE Emirates to Athletic Bilbao.
It is not yet officially known who will succeed Elguezabal in Pogacar’s team. According to various cycling media, the search for a successor is already in full swing behind the scenes. The Slovenian superstar himself has not yet commented on the farewell to his confidant, who was already working at UAE when Pogacar joined the most successful team in recent years in 2019.