Meet The Team: Prof Dr Vincent Gouttebarge

In this series, we'll be introducing you to the great people who work at FIFPRO .

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Vincent, tell us about yourself, what is your current role and what’s your background?

I am a former professional footballer who played 14 seasons in France and the Netherlands. In January 2013, after my playing career and academic education at the University of Amsterdam, I was invited to speak about my journey as a professional footballer by FIFA. Just before that meeting in Zurich, I ran into Theo van Seggelen, who was at that time FIFPRO’s General Secretary. He asked me to visit FIFPRO’s headquarters a few days later, and we agreed that the health of players needed to be embedded within FIFPRO’s agenda and daily work. That was the start of my enrolment at FIFPRO as Chief Medical Officer. In addition to my role at FIFPRO, I am also Extraordinary Professor at the section Sports Medicine of University of Pretoria and department of Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine of the Amsterdam UMC .

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What do you do at FIFPRO? What does an average week look like?

My main tasks are:

• To assist and support our national player unions regarding their medical enquiries
• To develop medical knowledge via scientific research and disseminate it via various sources such as policies, scientific articles, and medical conferences
• To represent FIFPRO at meetings with stakeholders, such as FIFA and UEFA

As I am employed by FIFPRO for three days per week, I need to be well-organised. I spend around 50% of my time in meetings, calls, workshops, and conferences. The rest of my time is spent reviewing medical reports and working on both internal and external projects. Examples of ongoing projects are the Drake Football Study, the After Football Career Consultation, FIFPRO’s Players Workload Monitoring Tool and Project ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament).

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What are you aiming to achieve with the work you do?

My work focusses on a wide range of sports medicine domains relevant to professional football; striving to protect and promote the physical, mental, and social health of active and former professional players. For this, I generally stick to the following empirical cycle:?

1. Identification of a problem among players via observation or interview(s) with national unions and players
2. Translation of a practical problem into a scientific problem, and related research study
3. Application of the defined research methodology and scientific output.
4. Implementation of the newly-developed knowledge or support into practice

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Professionally, what are you excited about right now??

From a medical perspective, I am particularly positive about the collaboration we have recently developed with other stakeholders such as FIFA, UEFA, and European Leagues. Such a collaboration provides a constructive context to advance on various medical domains that are relevant within the professional football industry, being ultimately beneficial to the health of players.

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If you could change one thing about football, what would it be?

Only captains being allowed to speak to the referees as seen at EURO 2024, and piloting temporary concussion substitutions, of course!

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What do you do to relax??

In addition to spending time with family and friends, the combination of exercising regularly and a healthy lifestyle, including sufficient sleep, enables me to relax and helps me to stay physically and mentally in a good place most of the time.

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How can people follow what you get up to?

I am more in favour of “I think, therefore I am” than “I’m seen, therefore I am”. Consequently, I am rarely active on social media. I suggest you follow @FIFPRO on X and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with our work.