Americans following soccer for the first time this World Cup may have watched a 6-foot-5 man-mountain help Norway knock Brazil out of the tournament on Sunday and wondered, “Who is that guy?”
To soccer fans, Erling Haaland is the unmistakable, 200-pound modern-day Viking seemingly built for soccer. With his combination of speed and strength, he has been a prolific goalscorer for his national and league teams, Norway and Manchester City, and the scourge of defenders who have faced him since he entered top-flight football in 2017.
By his own admission, nature and nurture have each played a part in him becoming an all-time great. In a day-in-the-life YouTube video he shared last October, Haaland said he got his pace from his mother, a former heptathlete for Norway, and his football knowledge from his father, an ex-Premier League player who also represented his country.
His routine is optimized to make the most of his natural abilities and to fuel peak athletic performance. Judging by the YouTube video and what is publicly known about his regime, he keeps things pretty simple — for a world-class athlete, at least.
He cooks whole, top-quality, locally sourced food that he enjoys, and prioritizes recovery in all its guises. (According to a 2023 interview with Manchester City’s head of nutrition, team members also take a simple cocktail of supplements: vitamin D, probiotics, and Omega-3).
A high-protein, whole-food diet
Of course, Haaland has wildly different nutritional needs to the average sedentary office worker or even an amateur athlete. He trains daily and can sprint up to nearly 22 miles per hour, fuelled by a 6,000-calorie diet.
Haaland would get a top rating from dietitians, including those who have spoken to Business Insider in the past, for what appears to be his food-first approach to nutrition. In the October YouTube video, he prioritized whole, unprocessed foods as his source of nutrients.
In the video, for breakfast, he prepares coffee with milk and maple syrup alongside a plate of eggs and sourdough bread. Haaland tells the camera matter-of-factly that his routine is “logical.”
He then heads to a farm store to buy some groceries: raw milk, raw honey, ribeye, fillet, tomahawk, and short rib cuts of meat. He rounds off the day with freshly prepared steak, potatoes, and salad. In the 2022 documentary “Haaland: The Big Decision,” the player shares that he eats organ meats, including heart and liver.
A regular person would be advised to dial back on the fatty cuts of red meat, prioritizing lean protein and fiber, including from fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as whole grains. While a diet high in saturated fats, like those found in red meat, is linked to cardiovascular disease, fiber helps to prevent it.
In a second day-in-the-life video published in April, his regular coffee has added collagen. He later tucks into pulled chicken tacos topped with veggies, made by Manchester City’s team chefs.
Mobility and recovery
Mario Pafundi, Haaland’s physiotherapist, told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper last month that the pair prepare the player’s body for matches, recovery, and injury management.
In the October YouTube video, Haaland lies on a bed while Pafundi stretches his hips, which the footballer half-jokes is vital for scoring so many goals.
Haaland supplements his recovery work with Pafundi with contrast therapy, alternating between the sauna and an ice bath, and red light therapy.
Sunlight: yes. Blue light: no
Alongside eating well and staying fit, sleep is the third pillar of Haaland’s routine.
“For me maybe the most important thing in life is sleep — not only a lot, but good sleep,” he told GQ in 2023.
To get the highest-quality shut-eye, Haaland tries to work with his circadian rhythm or body clock. He likes to start his day going for a short walk to get some daylight and fresh air, he said in the October YouTube video. In the evenings, he wears glasses that filter out blue light, a wavelength that’s beneficial in the day but disrupts the release of sleep-related hormones.
“Why not, you know, for my life and also my career, why not try to optimize some easy small things as much as I can?” Haaland said.
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