Professor Gleeson joins us to celebrate publication of his new book Nutrition for Top Performance in Football and explains its wider relevance beyond elite players
“Nutrition for Top Performance in Football is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to improve their knowledge and understand the effect that nutrition can have on performance. It doesn’t matter what age you are or what level you play at, this book is a great read for anyone who is interested in improving their performance.”
BRENDAN RODGERS
Nutrition for Top Performance in Football features a foreword from Leicester City FC manager, Brendan Rodgers, and describes the very latest comprehensive information on nutrition guidelines for professional players. The advice isn’t just relevant to professional players – much is also highly relevant to the amateur player and, with some modifications (which are described in the book) to the needs of junior players.
The specific needs of female players as well as match officials are covered. Nutrition for retired players, diabetic players, managers and even the fans also get a mention.
Relevant issues such as eating and drinking during travel, food hygiene and the influence of cultural and religious beliefs are considered.
The book includes example meal recipes by elite performance chefs Rachel Muse and Bruno Cirillo who regularly prepare meals for top professional players and snacks for training, match and recovery days.
The content of Nutrition for Top Performance in Football is based on a recent UEFA expert group statement coauthored by Professor Gleeson and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. For the book, Professor Gleeson translates and explains the science so that we can all understand.
“Knowing what the top professional players are doing in terms of their nutrition can help amateur players improve their own performance, recovery and health.”
Professor Michael Gleeson
“The aim of this book is to explain the science underpinning the food, drink and supplement choices of professional footballers and how nutrition influences their match-day performance, training, and recovery,” Professor Gleeson explains. “It is intended to be a great resource for anyone interested in the beautiful game and one that can help the amateur player improve their own performance and recovery.”
As well as giving evidence-based guidelines to optimise football performance through appropriate nutrition the book also provides some amusing anecdotes about the history of football nutrition and some of the obscure and even absurd food and beverage choices that professional footballers have made over the years including right up to the present day.
It also contains numerous quotes from top managers, players both past and present, and those responsible for the nutrition and/or conditioning of players at several English Premier League clubs including Loughborough University sport science graduates Sam Erith (head of sport science at Manchester City) and Matt Reeves (head of fitness and conditioning at Leicester City).
Professor Gleeson says, “Nutrition is an important issue in many sports and football is no exception because it plays a crucial role in the health of the individual, in adaptations to exercise training, in weight maintenance, and in match performance and recovery, whether by professional players or by those who play the game for fun or for health reasons. Indeed, if amateurs learn to eat like the pros they can take their own game to the next level!”
For the American market the book is entitled Nutrition for Top Performance in Soccer.
Both titles are out now and available through good book stores and online retailers worldwide.
Congratulations Professor Gleeson on another fabulous book!