The Norwegian hitman has some crazy numbers going his way, but how does he maintain his form and fitness?
Erling Haaland almost immediately appears to be on top of his game. The Manchester City striker won the treble in his very first season at the Etihad and has smashed a number of goalscoring records with his uncanny ability to find the back of the net.
Haaland’s fitness regime and the sheer amount of calorie intake each day, including a bizarre diet, plays a significant role in his remarkable success on and off the pitch.
GOAL takes a look at the secrets behind the Norwegian’s skills, stamina and speed, including his diet, workout and fitness regimes.
How does Erling Haaland train? Workout regime in focus
Stanislav Macek, Haaland’s former coach at RB Salzburg, revealed that the player did 300 press-ups and 1,000 sit-ups a day. The former Dortmund star loves doing cardio, engages in a lot of resistance running coupled with sprinting up hills as often as he can.
Haaland’s workouts are mainly aimed at improving his speed, agility, and overall fitness in order to maintain his peak performance on the pitch. He concludes his routines with 10-20 minutes of stretching workouts that prevent stiffness and injuries to a great extent.
Treadmill workout, biking, row machine, HIIT sprints are some of the regular exercises Haaland puts in to boost his endurance and stamina.
He adds weight training, bodyweight exercises and functional movements to enhance his performance, and it’s unlike that of a typical bodybuilder but carefully curated by his father and nutritionist, Alfie Haaland.
What food does Erling Haaland eat?
If you’re looking at following Haaland’s model, you should be warned that his nutritional benefits come from rather unconventional eating habits.
A fundamental part of Haaland’s game and fitness also sees the fierce striker consuming as much as 6,000 calories a day.
To put in numbers, 6,000 calories a day is nearly three times the recommended amount for an adult male and Haaland often requests cheese and ham omelets from Man City chefs.
“You (other people) don’t eat this, but I am concerned with taking care of my body. I think eating quality food that is as local as possible is the most important. People say meat is bad, but… which meat? Which one? The meat you buy at McDonald’s? Or the local cow that eats grass right there? I eat the heart and liver,” the Norwegian shared in his documentary called ‘Haaland – The Big Decision’.
Nutritionists have confirmed beef heart and liver as one of the most nutritionally dense foods, with significant amounts of iron, riboflavin, vitamin B12, vitamin A, and copper.
“If you look at my body, if you look at my legs, you will see that I have changed a lot,” the City striker said in an interview with AS.
“I have become a real man. I have become faster, That is one of the most important things. I have gone from 86 kilos to 94, but it is not a beer belly, it is about gross muscle mass. I take great care of what I eat.
“The first thing I do in the morning is to get some sunlight in my eyes; it is good for circadian rhythm. I have also started to filter my water. I think it can have great benefits for my body,” he added.
As a matchday minus one ritual, the striker also eats lasagne cooked by his dad, Alfie-Inge. So much that City boss Pep Guardiola joked to bring the former defender back at the club.
“We can make an offer so Erling’s father comes to cook for us,” he quipped. “If this is the secret of Erling’s goals I’m going to convince [chairman] Khaldoon [Al Mubarak] to bring him here!
“But I think there’s not only one secret.”
Haaland also takes eating fresh foods to the next level – so much that the Rolls Royce he travels in to training contains a cooking stove.
“I really like kebab (meat). I love it,” Haaland would admit.
“That doesn’t mean I eat it all the time. I eat it a couple of times a year when I’m in my hometown – I almost never eat it, but it’s still my favourite food.”
Besides kebabs, Haaland is said to have a craving for steak, oysters, lobsters, Indian food, duck and Chinese sweet and sour chicken