Tomahawk steaks, 1AM ice baths, and breaking records: How Erling Haaland became the world’s most imperious striker | OneFootball

On a night that should have been celebrated as Kevin de Bruyne’s homecoming – when he returned to the Etihad Stadium representing Napoli in the UEFA Champions League – Erling Haaland stole the show by becoming the quickest player in the competition to reach 50 goals. 

It took the Norwegian just 49 games to reach the milestone, while De Bruyne – although lauded by home supporters – was substituted as part of a sacrificial move due to Giovanni di Lorenzo’s early dismissal.

But it was Haaland’s post-match routine that caught the eyes of many on social media.

Firstly, the 25-year-old decided to walk the perimeter of the empty Etihad Stadium, capturing a small part of his walk from the South Stand before jumping into an ice bath just hours later. 

It was approaching one o’clock in the morning by the time the striker stepped foot into the freezing tub of water, but what he said shortly before that was perhaps a depiction as to how the highest level of athletes go about their lives.

“Sometimes in life you’ve got to do things that you really don’t want to do. And right now, one of the last things I want to do is go in an ice bath,” he said as he pondered in the garden of his multi-million pound Cheshire home.

Ice baths, used to build mental resilience and increase the rate at which the body recovers following vigorous activity, are a key part in a schedule sculpted to help Erling Haaland stay at the top of his game — not least because of his unwavering potential that, frightfully for the rest of the Premier League, seems yet to be fully unlocked. 

While ice baths are a contributing factor to his mental toughness, there are many more practices within the striker’s life that were displayed in his ‘Day in the life of a pro footballer’ YouTube video, which has generated over eight million views to date. 

In the laid-back and fascinating tape, Erling Haaland spoke on the importance of food and how he tries to stick to a whole-foods-based diet, which consists of single ingredient produce. 

“Coffee is a superfood in my eyes, if you do it right. Why? It depends on the quality, when you drink it and of course how, so yeah I’m into my coffee,” he said. “We need a little bit of this [raw milk], [it’s a] superfood as well. I think it’s good for us, it’s good for our stomach, it’s good for our skin, it’s good for our bones and muscles; that’s why I drink it. I drink it with milk and maple syrup to protect the caffeine from fat and sugar.”

Only six years ago, when Erling Haaland joined Borussia Dortmund from RB Salzburg, the forward was still seen as an exciting prospect through the lens of many football fans but after a prolific time at the Bundesliga club – where he scored 86 goals in 89 games across all competitions – he is now regarded as the greatest striker in the Premier League, perhaps even the world. 

What’s left in Haaland’s diet is plenty of protein: more raw milk, tomahawk steaks which range anywhere from £25 to £40 per kilogram, and eggs, which he often has on sourdough in the morning before training, be it with or without his Manchester City teammates. 

There are rarely any days where the Norway international is caught slacking with his nutrition but as someone who has now scored 39 goals in 33 games for club and country this season, that doesn’t come as much of a surprise. 

As important as diet is for professional athletes, especially those on the level of Premier League footballers, Haaland has previously stressed the importance of recovery and sleep which, again, entails much more than just putting his head on a pillow and closing his eyes. 

Red-light therapy, which is used to aid recovery alongside ice baths and saunas, is a frequent practice for Haaland, so much so that he has all of this at his home. Additionally though, he also wears mouth tape and blue-light glasses at night to give him the best chance of deep and restorative sleep. 

Mouthtape is often habituated as modern research suggests that mouthbreathing can disrupt the onset of deep sleep and reduce its quality, while blue-light glasses help produce melatonin, the chemical our brains create to start the process of falling asleep. 

In August 2023, the year he was named Ballon d’Or runner-up and shortly after being announced as the latest Prime athlete – a hydration drink company owned by YouTuber’s KSI and Logan Paul – Haaland shed light on the importance of sleep and its effect on the body’s performance. 

“I think sleep is the most important thing in the world. So to sleep good, simple kinds of things: blue [light] blocking glasses, shutting out all the signals. I sleep with it [mouth tape] as well,” he said on the Impaulsive podcast. 

The 25-year-old’s journey to the top of the order in England hasn’t come by way of luck, as it never does with the majority of top-level sportsmen, and at present it is hard to go anywhere in the Norwegian town of Bryne without seeing connections of Haaland all over the place. 

His goal-scoring, which has seen him rack up an array of records alongside 150 goals in 174 games at Pep Guardiola’s side, hasn’t stagnanted since he touched down in Manchester — according to his former coach at Bryne FK, Espen Undheim, it has been that way since he was a young boy.

“I first knew of Erling when he used to come to our after-school sessions, twice a week and I worked with him from the age of eight until he was 12 and then I was one of three coaches who trained him aged 13 to 14,” Undheim told the Manchester City website.

“Obviously, we knew his father was Alf Inge and that he had been a great player for Bryne FK, Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and City, but there was no pressure or expectation on his shoulders at such a young age. 

“What was soon clear to me was that he loved scoring goals — for some boys it was like, ‘yeah, ok, that’s good’ when they scored, but for Erling it was everything and he would run around with his arms in the air. It gave him such pleasure.” 

In its present state, Norway is now a place where children and growing footballers are admiring Haaland more than anyone, largely down to records he has broken in a City shirt.

As the commonplace striker now possesses height, strength and power – unlike the early days of the Premier League where the likes of Michael Owen and Alan Shearer exploited defences with their nimble movement – the Norwegian has led a renewed impression of what a typical goal-machine looks like. 

In 2023, Haaland scored the most goals in a single Premier League season at 36 in 33 starts for Guardiola’s side. But he has since made much bigger contributions in the North West, most recently eclipsing Cristiano Ronaldo’s English top-flight tally after scoring his 103rd and 104th goals against West Ham United last month, and doing so in 122 fewer games. 

Earlier in the season, Haaland was projected to hit 389 goals by the time his nine-and-a-half-year contract at the Etihad club expires and although his scoring doesn’t look to be slowing anytime soon, that number would come under a record which would, perhaps, be slightly out of reach, even in contrast to the striker’s towering standards. 

Nevertheless, Haaland’s impact at City so far has been met with clear improvement given he has helped the club win two Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League to cap off what was a historic Treble-winning season in 2023. 

Ultimately, while the red-light therapy, ice baths and his meticulous diet paint the picture of a quintessential modern-day athlete, it is clear to see that the core of Haaland is uncaged from the eight-year-old in Bryne. 

Behind the records and the physical dominance lies an unadulterated joy for the simple act of tapping the ball into the net – evidently, that is why he is so good at it.