Ramadan: Dango Ouattara shares his experience of fasting as a Premier League footballer | OneFootball

Today, Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Ramadan is the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic lunar calendar, marked by daily fasting from dawn to sunset, deep spiritual reflection, prayer, and charity.

In 2026, it was celebrated from Tuesday 17 February to Friday 20 March.

Brentford forward Dango Ouattara is one of many Premier League players who has been observing Ramadan over the last month.

We spoke with Ouattara, as well as performance nutrition lead Craig Umenyi, about the practicalities of fasting while still performing at the top level of football.

Ouattara: It’s more than important, it’s everything

Born in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouattara’s career initially took him from his home country to French club Lorient. He then made the move to Bournemouth and, in the summer, became the Bees’ club-record signing.

Throughout that time, family and religion have been the two predominant pillars for the 24-year-old.

“It’s more than important, it’s everything,” he said on his faith.

“It has always been like that since an early age - religion and family are everything. My family and my faith help me with football, but my family and my religion come first.

“Ramadan is a month during which I pray a lot and also share a lot. I share a little bit of everything; money, food, anything or everything that can be shared.”

Ouattara added: “What changes for me is the nutrition, but the rest is the same as normal.

“The nutritionist at the club helps me through it, and it’s very easy for me. There is no problem with fasting and the matches.”

Understanding

Performance nutrition lead Craig Umenyi started at Brentford in December, having previously worked at Everton, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

He explained how supporting players during Ramadan is far more than simply a nutritional aim.

“I’d been out of football for five years before taking this job and I would say there is a greater consideration of it,” he said.

“Pretty much every Premier League team will have, I’d imagine, between two to eight or nine players who are fasting and observing Ramadan.

“We’re constantly trying to look at how we can evolve and support athletes but also by humanising it and not just seeing it from a performance-led perspective.

“You do have to be curious, you have to remind yourself as a nutritionist that this isn’t just a nutrition thing; there’s a spiritual element, there’s a family, there’s a community if we’re talking about family who might visit at that time or might be in different time zones.”

Umenyi went onto explain the importance of communication between himself, the wider performance team, and players observing Ramadan over the last month.

“We had some open and transparent conversations because my big thing is that it needs to be something that is celebrated,” he continued.

“A player may be sheepish or reserved about it because there can almost be a western leaning to approach it as a problem for an athlete, and it doesn’t have to be, particularly if there is good communication and support in place.

“As a result, it can become one of those things where players don’t bring it up and come forward to you, because they don’t think you maybe have the cultural understanding or even the desire to help.

“Of course, there are going to be challenges from the norm, but we can absolutely work around that. That isn’t just, ‘What is Dango eating? What are we providing him?’

“It can also be how we modify training to allow for later report times or earlier leave times or making sure that the multi-faith room is available at times when he’s going to pray.

“My main thing is that Dango felt supported when we were having conversations about it and that it wasn’t overkill. He’s a grown man so you don’t want to be asking him if he is okay every five minutes as that’s not normal for him. You want to get that balance.”

A player-led approach

As is the case outside of Ramadan, each player’s needs are carefully catered to both by the club’s off-field and football staff.

Over the last month, Ouattara and midfielder Vitaly Janelt have been fasting; two players with different skillsets and different nutritional requirements, particularly given that the latter has missed Brentford’s last four fixtures through a metatarsal injury.

Umenyi explained: “There is a lot of individualisations with it that textbook guidelines and recommendations don’t really allow for. That’s the practical element of working as a nutritionist.

“What is interesting is that players can have very different approaches. It’s never universal.

“You may have an athlete who will not wake for Suhoor [the meal consumed earlier in the morning], preferring to stay up later so that they are having a second evening meal after Iftar [the meal eaten after sunset], then sleep all the way through.

“Another athlete will wake up to break fast, then look to go back to sleep, so their sleep patterns change. It’s different approaches between individuals.”

What does fasting do to the body?

Naturally, changing the pattern of when an individual consumes food or drink has an impact.

“There are a few things,” Umenyi explains.

“With hydration, you haven’t got those fluid opportunities throughout the day. One consideration is whether you try and encourage large volumes of fluid with a high concentration of electrolytes at Suhoor, which would help better retain fluid across the day.

“But then the practical element of it is that if you give someone a high sodium electrolyte, this makes for a salty solution, which stimulates thirst drive. You may then have someone who is better hydrated from a whole-body perspective but will have a higher awareness of thirst throughout the day.

“Practically, what would be preferable for the individual? Some of that is a bit of trial and error.

“Nutritionally, you can account for the fact that you have say two larger meals spread out, but typically speaking, people’s natural behaviour is that you don’t fully compensate with those two meals, partly because of the timing and context around it.

“For example, it might be unlikely that there will be a huge appetite and desire to eat a very large meal in the early hours of the morning. Being creative with energy-dense foods and increasing calories through fluids can help better achieve the levels of energy intake that the athlete requires.”

How has Brentford supported Ouattara

While this season isn’t the first time that Ouattara – as well as Janelt – have observed Ramadan as a Premier League player, Umenyi and the catering team at Jersey Road have aided them across the last month.

“The chefs here are really accommodating, and this isn’t the first year that they have been working with players during Ramadan,” said Umenyi.

“With Dango, we send him home each afternoon with a pack to break fast with in the morning at Suhoor. We give him a drink with high quantities of carbohydrate and protein, so we try to leverage it back to get some of that in with fluids, because a large volume of food at that time might not be the easiest to consume.

“We’ll then do a mixture of breakfast options. He’ll have dates to break fast before consuming breakfast, we will give him the option of electrolytes and we’ll also communicate with his chef around his food provision for Iftar and the rest of the evening.

“He has a chef that comes out a few evenings a week who does a good job of ensuring that there are three courses for him: a starter, a main and usually a fruit-based dessert. As a result of that, it means he’s got multiple feeding opportunities in the evening.

“The other addition we’ve done which is slightly different is that we’ve provided a fair bit of salted nuts. Nuts are a good source of healthy fats and are typically what we’d call energy dense; there are more calories per gram. So, to make sure we’re still getting him to reach his energy requirements, that helps top up and the salt provides sodium, which we’d hope would help him retain some more of the fluids.

“We definitely always want to review things, there are things we might do differently next time, but equally we don’t want to be over prescriptive to limit an individual.”

Ouattara: Club values match my own

Since signing in August, Ouattara has played a major role for Keith Andrews’ side, featuring 29 times across all competitions.

In that period, and despite missing a month of action due to representing Burkina Faso in the Africa Cup of Nations, he has contributed five goals and seven assists.

“Even before joining the club, this is a family value; being humble and hard working,” he revealed.

“Joining a new dressing room is a bit strange, but on the other hand, we all play football which makes it easier to get along.

“I’ve been welcomed by everyone. Everyone is very friendly and I feel like I have really integrated into the group. Everyone has helped in their own different ways.

“The fact I have a different faith to my team-mates is not important and it’s not an obstacle for us to work together as a team.”