Available to order as paperback or Kindle eBook!My new book: Nutrition for Top Performance in Football

I love football. It is my favourite spectator sport. For a long time I have had an interest in the nutrition and behavioural practices that can improve the performance and health of footballers. This has included analysing blood and saliva samples from premier league players and providing advice to clubs about how to limit illness risk and nutrition for performance and recovery. I have worked with the sport science and medical support teams of Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and most recently Leicester City who I am also an avid supporter of. Several of my past students work on the coaching and sport science support staff at the Foxes. I have recently been a member of the UEFA Expert Group on Nutrition in Elite Football and a coauthor of the Expert Group Statement which is a comprehensive review paper about what players should be eating and drinking to support their health, performance and recovery. Following my 3-year involvement in the writing and editing of the UEFA Expert Group Statement on Nutrition in Elite Football - which was published in October 2020 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine - I have written a book for the general public (and particularly the amateur player) all about football (soccer) nutrition. It's title is NUTRITION FOR TOP PERFORMANCE IN FOOTBALL. Two elite performance chefs, Rachel Muse and Bruno Cirillo, are providing meal recipes for the book and it should be published in eraly in the New Year of 2022. Brendan Rodgers, the current manager of Leicester City, has kindly written the foreword for my book.

Synopsis of the book: Nutrition for Top Performance in Football

· Based on the latest science and the opinion of football experts

· An insightful book that reveals the secrets of improving football performance through good nutrition

· Learn the diet and supplement strategies used by the top teams

· Reliable evidence-based nutrition advice specific to football

· Comprehensive coverage of the nutritional needs of male and female players, adolescent players and match officials

· By learning about the science behind what top professional players eat and drink, amateur players can improve their own football performance

· Written by a world-leading expert in sport nutrition who has provided advice to several English Premier League clubs and who has coauthored the 2020 UEFA Expert Group Statement on Nutrition in Elite Football as well as several highly rated and popular textbooks on sport nutrition, exercise metabolism and healthy lifestyle advice.

· Contains meal plans and recipes provided by top performance chefs

· Contains a 1,000-word foreword written by Brendan Rodgers

· Contains full colour infographics, figures and photos


Contains 90,000 words, 12 chapters, about 330 pages, 25 Tables, 12 full-colour Infographics, over 40 full-colour Figures, 100 Meal Plans/Recipes and 80 full-colour photos plus a full list of reference sources and recommended websites. Includes numerous quotes from managers, players, football club nutritionists and elite performance chefs as well as a little football banter and humour. Foreword written by Brendan Rodgers, Leicester City FC manager. An attractive and great gift for anyone interested in professional or amateur football (soccer).

TITLE: NUTRITION FOR TOP PERFORMANCE IN FOOTBALL

SUBTITLE: EAT LIKE THE PROS AND TAKE YOUR GAME TO THE NEXT LEVEL

AUTHOR: MICHAEL GLEESON

FOREWORD BY BRENDAN RODGERS, MANAGER OF LEICESTER CITY FC

MEAL RECIPES BY ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEFS RACHEL MUSE AND BRUNO CIRILLO

The aim of this book is to provide an insight into what elite football (soccer) players eat and drink and allow readers to gain an understanding of the science that underpins the current recommendations made by nutrition experts. 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, nutrition influences nearly every process in the body involved in energy production and recovery from exercise. To understand and apply the principles of sport nutrition in football, some basic understanding of nutrition is necessary, as is some knowledge of metabolism and the physiological demands of the game itself. The first few chapters of the book provide all this basic background information.

An elite soccer player typically covers at least 10 kilometres (6 miles) in a 90-minute match with about 600 metres covered at full sprint speed. Heart rate is maintained at about 85% of maximum and the total amount of energy expended by players who complete the full 90 minutes is about 1600 kilocalories with around 60-70% of that energy coming from carbohydrate. Match-play involves not only running but also various in-play actions, such as jumping, tackling, passing, dribbling and shooting. In addition mental functioning is important for timing of ball strikes and tackles, quick reactions, passing accuracy, decision making and staying concentrated. All of these are affected by fatigue. Minimizing fatigue relative to the opposing team is an important strategy in football, because most goals are conceded in the last few minutes of each half and are commonly attributed to fatigue. Appropriate nutrition can address two of the major contributors to the development of fatigue, namely carbohydrate depletion and dehydration. In addition, some supplements like creatine, beetroot juice and caffeine can produce small improvements in performance in some players. Recovery starts immediately after the match ends and nutrition is crucially important at this time too for muscle repair and refueling, particularly in congested fixture periods when the next match can be less than three days away. Appropriate food choices and timing are also important to allow a player to perform hard training, avoid illness, sleep well, maintain an appropriate body weight and composition, and recuperate from injury.

The book provides interesting information on all these aforementioned issues using the UEFA 2020 Expert Group Consensus Review on Nutrition in Elite Football (the author contributed to the writing and editing of this landmark paper – the first one of its kind since 2006) as its basis but explaining it all in a way that any reasonably intelligent person can understand. 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.

Furthermore, football is a truly global game which is constantly evolving. Over the past decade there have been substantial increases in the physical and technical demands of match-play. As such, teams’ training regimens have become more multidimensional, in an attempt to prepare players optimally to cope with such evolutions and to address individual player needs. As part of this multidimensional approach, nutrition can play a valuable integrated role in optimising the performance of players during training and match-play, and in maintaining their overall health throughout a long season. An evidence-based approach to nutrition which emphasises, a ‘food first’ philosophy (i.e. prioritising food over supplements to meet nutrient requirements) is fundamental to ensure effective player support. This requires relevant scientific evidence to be applied according to the constraints of what is practical and feasible in the football setting. The science underpinning sports nutrition is evolving at a fast pace, and practitioners must be alert to new developments. Knowing what the top professional players are doing in terms of their nutrition can help amateur players improve their own performance, recovery and health.

The book provides the very latest comprehensive information on nutrition guidelines for professional players – much of this advice 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 also covered. Relevant issues such as eating and drinking during travel, food hygiene and the influence of cultural and religious beliefs are also considered. The final chapter provides some example meal plans, recipes by two top performance chefs, Rachel Muse and Bruno Cirillo, who regularly prepare meals for elite players and snacks for training, match and recovery days.


Book covers for UK/EU (football) and for the USA (where they call the game soccer)


Some images from the book

Meal recipes created by elite performance chefs Rachel Muse and Bruno Cirillo

Comments and quotes from professional football people (club managers, nutritionists and players) who understand the importance of nutrition