After the final whistle was blown at the Etihad, Erling Haaland knew that his work was done. He untied his long Viking-like hair, took off his shirt and celebrated with the adoring Manchester City fans.
The 25-year-old striker – revealing neatly shaven armpits, which footballers often do to reduce chafing – was covered neck to waist in scars, scratches, and cuts after a 90-minute battle with his old foe Gabriel, one that at times seemed more akin to a match at Wrestlemania than a football game.
It was a true old-school battle. There was pushing, shoving, and even seemingly a ‘headbutt’ between the City and Arsenal stars. They fought tooth and nail with the Premier League title on the line.
‘This is the Premier League nowadays. It’s wrestling here and there,’ Haaland said.
And this was displayed no better than when Haaland managed to wrestle off Gabriel as the ball bobbled in his direction inside the box, before sliding home the goal that blew the title race wide open.
Gabriel is known as one of the most robust and powerful defenders in not just the Premier League, but the world, so it must take a serious amount of strength to not just hold him off, but control him well enough to be able to get a goal-scoring shot away.
But when Haaland took his number-nine City shirt off just two minutes after his goal, following yet another shoving contest with the Brazilian, which resulted in his under-shirt being torn apart, it was clear to see why the striker was able to more than just hold his own against the defender.
The man is shredded.
Haaland is a unique form of striker in this modern age, a machine some would say. He’s fast, he’s deadly in front of goal, and he’s built like an Ox. The perfect combination for making the best striker in the world.
While the Norwegian is clearly physically gifted in many ways, it’s taken a lot of work, dedication, and, some would say, crazy methods. The striker has a very distinctive way of both fueling himself and maintaining the right shape to compete at the top level year-round.
Haaland’s 6,000-calorie-per-day diet
It turns out it takes more than just your average 2,500-calorie-per-day diet to fuel the most dangerous striker in the Premier League. Chicken and rice don’t quite cut it for Haaland.
Cow hearts and livers can often be found on the menu, as referenced in Haaland: The Big Decision – the documentary made around his move to Manchester City – which are not items you would see every day on a regular pub menu.
‘You other people don’t eat this [heart and liver], but I am concerned with taking care of my body, Haaland explained in the documentary. ‘I think eating quality food that is as local as possible is the most important.
‘Or the local cow eating grass right over there? I eat the heart and the liver.’
Such unusual dietary habits are part of the City man’s 6,000-calorie-per-day diet. Yes, you read that right. When you consume such an unfathomable amount of calories, it can’t all be clean eating, though.
And it’s not. Haaland sticks to his meat-loving habits and, on occasion, switches out animal organs for a greasy kebab. In his documentary about his move to Manchester, Haaland: The Big Decision, the 23-year-old revealed his deep affection for kebabs, stating simply, ‘I love it’.
Also regularly on his shopping list – as shown on his access-all-areas YouTube channel – gigantic barbecue steaks, raw honey, and milk, lots of milk. Haaland loves the stuff, especially raw milk, and he once described it as his ‘magic potion’.
The Norwegian loves pairing his milk with a breakfast of eggs on sourdough and a cup of coffee with maple syrup at his six-bedroom mansion in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, which he shares with his girlfriend Isabel Haugsend Johansen.
‘Coffee is a super food in my eyes – if you do it right,’ Haaland explained on his YouTube channel.
‘Why? Depends on the quality, when you drink it, and of course, how. I’m into my coffee. It needs a little bit of [raw] milk in – super food as well, I think.’
During the video, Haaland also showcased his love for fish. He ate a lunch of sea bass, asparagus, and egg fried rice before joining his team-mates on the pitch at the Etihad campus.
Red-light therapy and recovery methods
To be able to perform at the level Haaland does every week, he needs to be extremely regimented with your recovery each day. Not just when at City’s training base in East Manchester, but also when he is at home with Johansen in Cheshire.
His go-to methods? Red-light therapy, saunas, ice baths, and individual physio sessions. These all help get the most out of his body.
In the first video on his eponymous channel, launched back in October, the Norwegian demonstrated the importance of getting some sunlight on your skin early doors with a walk.
Haaland loves a peaceful but productive start to the day, spending time with his girlfriend Johansen, whom he met when playing at the youth academy at Bryne.
But his serene start to the day is usually interrupted by Manchester City physio Mario Pafundi, who Haaland has jokingly nicknamed ‘Italian f***’, and then it’s off to work for the day.
On YouTube, Pafundi can be seen giving Haaland a massage and treatment session, with the City star revealing the secrets to how he scores ‘crazy’ goals – including his famous strike against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
‘I have a natural good flexibility in my groin and hips, which for me is so important to keep because how else do you score these goals?’ Haaland said. ‘You need to have good mobility or flexibility to score these crazy goals, so we need to keep this.’
The session also includes red-light therapy, which uses infrared rays to penetrate deep into tissues and joints, to aid his recovery. Advocates say light-emitting diodes (LEDs) can repair damaged tissue, calm the body’s response to injury, and reduce inflammation.
‘From the sun we get a lot of red light,’ Haaland added.
But seeing as the video was filmed as Autumn turned to winter last year, and the days became shorter, Haaland needed to use a machine to ‘get a bit of red light on my back and on my body.’
On most evenings, Haaland takes an ice bath and a sauna, two things he tries to do ‘almost every day and at least five times a week’,
It has long been known that the cold plunge, while not the most pleasant experience, is brilliant for recovery after periods of intense exercise. Haaland is not the only footballer to use them on the regular – Cristiano Ronaldo loves a midnight dip into ice.
An ice bath produces a mini shock to the metabolic system of the athlete who gets in it, while they fight off delayed onset muscle soreness.
And boy, I bet Haaland was sore after his battle with Gabriel. My bet is the ice bath was used within minutes of him leaving the Etihad turf on Sunday night.
