DUESSELDORF: Vans packed with football kit, colossal piles of laundry and more than 200 boots to take care of – spare a thought for the kit man of Switzerland's national team, one of the unsung heroes of Euro 2024, for whom an error can be as costly to his team as any mistake on the pitch.
Roger Kaspar loves his job, despite its low profile and each day having to tackle some of the bigger logistical headaches of the tournament.
He takes care of training equipment, shirts, shorts, boots and rain jackets and organises daily laundry for 26 players plus coaches and team staff.
He also arranges printing of bespoke match shirts and the inter-city transportation of everything the squad needs.
It's a job he takes seriously.
"It's about good planning, coordination and communication," Kaspar told Reuters.
"We need to have everything in the right place, in the right moment. It's a lot of different things you have to think about and there's always the risk you'll forget something."
Using spreadsheets, he keeps track of inventory to make sure nothing goes missing. Each player has two sets of attire for every match, plus warm-up wear, and two sets of training kits, variable depending on the weather.
Some players like to swap their match shirts with opposing players, others keep them as mementos. And then there are a few special requests before games.
"Above all, it's about the socks," Kaspar said. "Some of the players like to have the socks cut, others not."
Cutting holes in the back of socks reduces pressure on the calf muscles.
THREE VANS TO TRANSPORT KIT
Kaspar has two staff to help him out. Toni Parente takes care of the training kit, while Jean-Benoit Schupbach looks after all the boots, of which each player has about four pairs.
It is a complex operation that started months before Euro 2024 started. Kaspar visited Germany in December to help the team find a base camp, a few weeks after Switzerland qualified, and was in regular contact for months with the hotel management to ensure all their needs would be met.
When it was finally time to head to Germany, it took three vans to transport the kit from neighbouring Switzerland.
Kaspar joins morning meetings with the national team staff then heads to their Stuttgart base camp several hours early to prepare kit and equipment for training, some borrowed from the local club. Then the kit all needs to be collected and sent off to be washed and ready for the next day.
On match days, Kaspar arrives at the stadium separately from the team, about four hours early, to prepare the dressing room.
He gets to watch only parts of each game and is in and out of the dressing room preparing for halftime and the final whistle, which he said was his most testing time.
"I watch the first half from the bench or the technical seats just beside or behind the bench," he said.
"Of course, I can't relax. I'm ready to help if a player needs anything."
Switzerland at Euro 2024 have been enjoying one of their best runs in a major tournament in recent years, having come within seconds of defeating hosts Germany in the group stage and outclassing and eliminating holders Italy in the last 16, moments Kaspar said he would cherish.
"We have great staff and very nice, humble guys. I think the best moments are spending good times with them and of course celebrating important victories together," he said.
"When you lose it's less pleasant but it's also part of the job and you have to guarantee the best possible service to the players, no matter how the results are." (Reporting by Martin Petty; editing by Clare Fallon)