The Mexican soccer federation has expanded its relationship with RealTrack Systems to outfit every elite player and club with the Wimu Pro wearable tracker.
RealTrack Systems, a product of the Barça Innovation Hub, became a founding partner of the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación’s Center for Technological Innovation (best known as CITEC) last summer. The initial arrangement included the distribution of Wimu GPS devices to every first-division Liga MX club, the women’s Liga MX Femenil, the men’s and women’s national team programs, and referees.
As the season progressed, the program grew to include the second division, La Liga Ascenso, plus academy players. In all, Wimu is in use by 1,375 players on 63 teams in what may be the most comprehensive deployment of a wearable tracking system in pro sports.
“They can track the movement of all players since the beginning until they reach the first team or the national team,” said Carlos Ortega, RealTrack Systems marketing media assistant. He spoke to SportTechie over Skype alongside the company’s chief marketing officer, Gorka Jimenez.
RealTrack Systems Isabel Perez Segura speaks weekly with members of the Mexican federation and RTS sport scientists meet monthly with each club’s technical staff to discuss best practices, data interpretation, and new features.
“If they have any specific requirement, as we are the developer of all the system, we can work quite rapidly,” Ortega said.
Before Citec and Wimu, Ortega estimated that only three of the 18 Liga MX clubs used any kind of GPS tracker. Now, all 18 have Wimu, and 16 have asked their players to wear the units during games. CITEC also facilitates the use of other sports technologies such as data analytics from Wyscout and Golstats as well as video from seeUplay (a Mexican partner of Pixellot).
Wimu is in use by teams across several sports. Of note right now is the Sri Lankan cricket team currently competing in the ICC Cricket World Cup. Several national soccer teams use Wimu, including Spain, Russia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Latvia, and Myanmar. The Russian team used Wimu during its quarterfinal run in the Russia 2018 World Cup, where it lost to eventual runner-up, Croatia.
“They are discovering how to define a profile for the Mexican players,” Ortega said. “I think that was one of the main goals to reach, to try to define how Mexican footballers are. Then, they are also using the system in order to have a good result and even be at the top in the World Cup.”
The feedback relayed to the RTS home office in Spain from the Mexican performance coaches includes both fitness and technical aids. Wimu is being used to govern return-to-play protocols as players rehab from injury, as well as strategy decisions. Heat maps can illustrate when a player is veering outside of his on-field responsibilities.
“Data means power for them,” Ortega said, adding: “We can say that there’s not a single Wimu that is in a corner, turned off, for more than two days.”