9 Ways to Train Like a Premier League Soccer Player

Learning is inclusive

If you think you’re above learning, or sharing your own knowledge, then you may need to rethink your attitude. Tottenham Hotspur is a topflight football team, but it does not segregate the elite players from the young academy hopefuls. In The Lodge cafeteria, you might find a young student of the game balancing headers with homework, and on the next table may sit Dele Alli and Son Heung-Min—two of the team’s, and Europe’s, top players— discussing tactics.

“Ultimately, with younger players, they want to emulate what the first team is doing,” says club nutritionist Craig Umenyi.

It’s all part of a carefully-designed environment that has been put together so that the young upstarts can immerse themselves in the practices of the best-of-the-best. This extends to training and picking up healthy eating habits, providing the perfect platform so that students of the game might follow in the footsteps of their elders.

Stay Balanced

During the day, I took part in the exact same training session that has been delivered to many a Spurs player. Carlos Lalin, a long-time trusted aid of the legendary Mourinho, is head of First Team Performance at Tottenham, and the energetic Venezuelan places balance at the center of his classes.

A standard routine will typically include balancing exercises designed to work all the major muscle groups and help with flexibility. Arching forward while standing on one leg is a great way to work the core while strengthening the legs and improving coordination. Resistance bands are awesome for targeting certain areas such as the inner thighs and glutes.

Football players work on balance because they need to be able to turn on a dime on the pitch, and by strengthening their muscles and core they’re less likely to pull a ligament or become injured during a game. Without picking up a dumbbell, I was left drenched in sweat at the end of the session.

“If your muscles are shaking, then this means you’re really working them as you try to balance,” says Lalin.

Focus on your weaknesses

Oliver “Skippy” Skipp has the world at his feet having signed with this favorite boyhood football club. The 19-year-old central midfielder is so skilled on the pitch that while rising through the ranks in the academy system, he often played above his age group, and Mourinho has praised his performance as “phenomenal.” Still, with all his strengths, Skippy has identified areas that he would like to improve on to be the very best player that he can be. The talented tackler knows that the top players display power and can really run.

“For me, maybe when you’re not playing you can do more gym work, where you don’t need to recover as much, especially since the lockdown that’s what I’ve been trying to do. In the Premier League these days, you need to be quick, strong, and powerful, so I think areas like that, especially whilst you’re still growing…These are the sort of areas that I’ve been personally looking to improve on,” says Skippy.

Don’t under-fuel

While it’s important that football players don’t overindulge when eating, it’s also a fact that the average soccer player might run 5-6.5 miles in a single game. This intense physical demand requires adequate caloric intake—enough to fuel them but not so much they’re bogged down. It’s necessary that players don’t under-fuel if they want to play at their full potential. Fortunately, Spurs’ Executive Chef Ted Turner makes sure that these athletes receive the most efficient nutrition, and the kitchen serves up healthy meals like tuna fillet and steamed chicken breast.

“The day before Match Day, we start piling on the carbs, filling them up with energy for the game. We feed the players very simple, basic foods like pasta and salad and proteins like chicken and salmon, not too heavy so that the stomach deals with digestion,” says Ted. “Then after, on ‘Match Day plus one,’ we are rebuilding the players, as they may have picked up an injury, with antioxidants like mixed berries for example. This year we have been introducing acai [high in Vitamin C]. We base the menu around carbs for energy and proteins for building and repair.”

Fiber for Fullness

Tottenham players can burn more than 500 calories in an hour on the pitch, and while carbs are an important source of energy, too much starch could become a drag. Umenyi makes sure to increase player’s intake of fiber to help with satiety, without making them bloated.

“If you eat porridge or beans you will feel full…we know fiber is really important so we can increase that with dates, oats, and seeds. You can get quite a nice fiber content from them. We create energy balls with increased fiber and we put them out as snacks for if we have a training session or if we are traveling to a game,” says Umenyi.

Fats for Fitness

With the trend toward lower fat foods and fat-free products being prevalent in our society, it’s imperative to build a healthy relationship with dietary fat rather than simply viewing it as the enemy of your waistline. Failing to eat enough fat can cause vitamin deficiencies and deprive you of an additional energy source.

“Fats, although we know that there are good fats and bad fats, you still need fats to get the vitamins to go around your body,” says Ted.

Dietary fat helps with the assimilation of vitamins A, D, K, and E. Good sources of healthy fats include plant-based oils, nuts, and sunflower seeds. These can be consumed in small quantities to keep your overall intake in check.

Be smart with supplementation

Even the most avid and careful eater may find that getting the right intake of micronutrients a difficult task, especially when factoring in all those other daily demands that we’re faced with, so this is where supplementation can be used in a smart way to complement whole foods. Umenyi is always looking for new ways to assist players with their vitamin and supplementation intake.

“A lot of the time, people might laugh if a footballer complains of having a cold, and people might question why they’re not training [but] it’s a concern for us because we need the immune system to be on-point,” says Umenyi. “A big thing to remember is that if players are even slightly ill, then it does increase their injury risk…Now that is a problem.”

Players are given smoothies and shots that include apple and kale to quickly get vital nutrients into their systems. Even supplements like collagen (the major component of muscles, tendons, and ligaments) can be added to flavored gels, making them easier to serve individually.

Recovery is Key

The time between football matches is just as important as the 90 minutes of action on the pitch because recovery is the key to playing at your full potential each and every time you lace up a pair of cleats. The team at Tottenham use a number of methods to rebuild their players. As the athletes leave a game and head for the lockers, they first travel through an ice bath for around eight minutes. They then enter a much warmer tank set at around 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Faranheit). Antioxidants that can be found in sources such as kale, and pineapple also play a large role in recovery and repair.

“Vitamin C is an antioxidant,” says Umenyi. “We try to give players lots of antioxidants in the recovery period, mainly to try and dampen some of that physiological stress that players are undergoing. Iron is really important for blood health and it helps to carry oxygen around the body.”

Have the mentality of a champion

As a renowned fitness coach that has trained the footballing superstars of Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United, and now Tottenham Hotspur, you would be forgiven for thinking that Lalin only has time for elite athletes. In truth, he takes the time to learn the names of all his students and has an infectious enthusiasm for fitness that can inspire people of all levels of physical ability. Lalin recognizes that players like Harry Kane and Steven Bergwijn all had to start somewhere. Key to his message is that fitness and mobility can be improved by anyone, so long as they have the right mental attitude and are willing to put the work in.

“Imagine you are a champion. Think like a champion, train like a champion, and you will become a champion,” says Lalin.