Welcome everybody to Soccer one-O-1. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and this week it's ranch, pizza, fizzyzy drinks and red meat more than once a week, all things that Graham and I can have, but professional footballers oftentimes cannot. Graham Ruffin, does that more or less encapsulate your diet?

Hello, Taylor Rockwell. Speak for yourself. I'm an elite level athlete. Let me just put out tidy away this pulp ice takeout that I had last night.

Yes, so we are going to discuss nutrition in football, specifically what do soccer players eat,

a topic that in researching made me realize just how unhealthy my dietary habits are.

I did not love this episode, even if it did end up motivating me to

maybe eat fewer things that I can grab in between recording sessions, which I've already

violated by eating a handful of yogurt pretzels prior to recording the last show.

Yeah. I mean, cut yourself some slack, Taylor. It's not like you have a club chef. Well,

not that you've told me anyway. Maybe you do. But these players have like chefs that come around and basically parents, their parents, Marcos just lives here. He doesn't come around. He's just always here to do the cooking. Well, you've got no excuse then. I mean, that is really an unfair difference, I think, for footballers, that they get the home chef and they get the like, specialized diet and nutrition and meal plans for their clubs as well.

I guess that's what happens when people pay 50, 60, 70, 80 million pounds for your services.

You tend to get a few nice things along the way, Graham.

But let's start with the obvious then when we're looking at what footballers eat.

Why is it important what they eat?

Yeah, so at the risk of stating the obvious diet and nutrition is important for soccer players

because it directly affects their performance on the pitch.

They are athletes increasingly in the modern game.

Players are being asked to run more and cover more distance and play quicker and all the rest.

And so if you don't treat your body right, if you don't prepare yourself for regular

athletic performance at the absolute elite level, then all of those things are going to be

harder for you.

It's like when I, Taylor, when I polish off three kebab pies at the Albion game, it is more

difficult for me to run back to my car in the pouring rain after full time. It's the same principle.

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