Lionel Messi is a world-famous soccer player hailing from Argentina, and he currently captains Barcelona’s professional club team. Celebrated globally, his expert skills and incredible agility make him one of the most exceptional players of all time. Growing older, Messi is becoming acclimated to the discouraging press and daunting statistics that are associated with aging athletes. As professionals enter their 30s, speculation ensues, indicating they are past their prime. They often fear their best years are behind them and find it challenging to compete with younger, promising professionals. Conversely, Messi seems to be defying time, as his minutes on the pitch remain increasingly impressive to his team, opponents, and many fans. Read on to see how Lionel Messi remains one of the world’s best soccer players, even though, in most games, he is the oldest athlete on the field.
Strict Diet
Professional soccer players take pride in what they eat, and Lionel Messi is no exception. He credits a strict, healthy diet to his extraordinary agility, and he works consistently with a nutritionist to maintain his daily dietary schedule.
His renowned nutritionist pinpoints five specific foods that are critical to Messi’s everyday regime. Water, olive oil, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are his primary sources of nutrition, and his majority of calories come from these specific foods. In addition to the top five, he incorporates nuts, seeds, and supplements like green superfoods powder to fortify his body with essential vitamins and minerals.
During soccer season, Messi’s diet is as crucial as ever. While he might stray in the off-season, he maintains his strict regime while wins and loses are on the line. His favorite meal on heavy training days is a vegetable soup containing garlic, onion, carrots, leeks, and potatoes. As evidenced by this list of components, Messi remains dedicated to including the top five ingredients in his regimented daily diet.
Off-Limits Foods
Lionel Messi consistently recognizes the healthy foods his body needs to perform. Additionally, he is very aware of which foods might decrease his achievements on the soccer field. The top enemy of athletic performance is sugar, according to his nutritionist. Because sugar is detrimental to muscle efficiency, which all successful soccer players require, professionals advise against it. White flour has the same negative effect as sugar and is therefore avoided by Messi as well.
Many modern nutritionists of athletes advise their clients to avoid eating copious amounts of meat. Meat presents complications to the digestive system and promotes an unhealthy gut microbiome. Therefore, though challenging considering his Argentinian heritage, Messi also evades ingesting too much meat in his diet.
Training
Messi’s training schedule is equally as strict as his regimented diet. The majority of his workouts revolve around speed training, as running is crucial in successful soccer play. His schedule focuses on numerous drills promoting his linear speed like lunges, jump squats, and hamstring work. Additionally, he incorporates several acceleration drills to increase his pace. Multidirectional speed is critical in soccer, as quick-cutting maneuvers are plentiful, so exercises to support these actions transpire daily.
In terms of agility, trainers construct a variety of obstacle courses for Messi to complete. Exercises like pillar jumps and diagonal hurdles boost his dexterity and keep him injury-free.
Innate Ability
Unfortunately, all the disciplined dietary restrictions and strict training schedules on earth can not create a global soccer phenom. Messi was lucky to be born with an innate gift of talent and skill. Though smaller in stature than most of his opponents, he physically surpasses his competition time and again.
In addition to his inherent bodily capacity, Messi brings a robust mental strength to his game. He makes consistently smart plays and regularly outperforms his competition metally. Most athletes agree that sports are just as much in the mind as they are in the body. Messi embodies this statement in every game he plays. That said, and regardless of age, Messi will forever remain one of the greatest soccer players of all time.
