One evening in the mid-1990s, Manchester United players and staff attended a Batman film premiere. It was a black-tie event. Cantona was a talent with an abundance of self-confidence, but had been a destructive force inside the dressing rooms of his previous clubs in France. He had been known as much for punch-ups with team-mates at Auxerre and Montpellier as his ability with a ball at his feet. He was perceived as damaged goods in France, but in England he helped Leeds United win the league a

At 1pm every afternoon, the hustle and bustle of Real Madrid's Valdebebas training ground grinds to a halt and the facility resembles a ghost town. The scene is a window into football's relentless pursuit of marginal gains as clubs across Europe turn to technology, purpose-built facilities and sleep experts to recharge their multi-million pound assets and gain a competitive advantage. Tennis great Roger Federer and basketball star LeBron James are both advocates of sleeping for upwards of 10 h

It was in Manchester that the Portuguese sought out the expertise of a man by the name of Mike Clegg - the Old Trafford club's power development coach between 2000 and 2011 - as he began his quest to not only become the greatest player on earth, but an athlete with no equal in the modern game. "I look at the other players who come and go with talent. Nani and Anderson both came in during 2007 at a similar age to Ronaldo, but the difference was astronomical. The difference was the understanding

A new breed of innovative minds are at work creating tomorrow's footballer. Tom Bates is a sports psychologist with a twist. He is West Brom's peak performance coach and implements training sessions designed to improve concentration, composure and decision-making on the ball. It's late April and he's demonstrating a technique known as mirroring at a science and football conference at the London Soccerdome - a vast indoor arena in the south east of the city - in front of a 400-strong band of co