Arsenal icon ate KFC before games and keeper had eight eggs – football's weirdest diets

Modern-day footballers are some of the fittest athletes on the planet with regimented diets and strict exercise programmes to keep them in shape. However, things were very different in the past with some players adhering to strange eating habits.

Express Sport takes a look at the weirdest diets in football, starting with a former Arsenal midfielder who developed an unhealthy obsession with fried chicken…

KFC before home games

Alex Song was not always on board with the strict dietary rules during Arsene Wenger’s time in charge of Arsenal. He enjoyed a decent spell in north London despite eating KFC before every game at the Emirates Stadium.

Emmanuel Frimpong, who played alongside Song, previously told The Telegraph that he remembered the midfielder tucking into fried chicken on the team bus.

“There was Song, who used to go to KFC before every home game,” said Frimpong. “On the bus to the team hotel the night before the game, he would be eating chicken nuggets.”

Eight eggs per day

Dino Zoff is widely remembered as one of football’s greatest goalkeepers, which might have been down to a dietary tip from his grandmother. As a teenager, he was rejected by the likes of Inter Milan and Juventus because he was deemed too small.

His grandmother came to the rescue by feeding him eight raw eggs a day in an attempt to boost his growth. It seemed to do the trick, with Zoff eventually growing to six feet tall and moving to Juventus in 1972.

He went on to win the World Cup and Euros with Italy in addition to six Serie A titles at club level.

Kebab pizzas

As well as being the most prolific striker in world football, Erling Haaland is also known for his unusual eating habits. His favourite cheat meal is a kebab pizza, with Haaland revealing his love for the dish in an interview with Manchester City’s in-house media.

“If I cheat, I eat kebab, you know? Kebab pizza is my favourite thing,” he said. “I love it. It’s so good. Me and my brother, if we buy it, we’re like hyping each other up, eating as much as possible.”

Haaland is also known to eat chicken and pasta cooked without salt or oil, while at other times he feasts on beef heart and liver.

Ice cream in the bath

Japanese defender Masahiko Inoha was never a household name in England but enjoyed a successful career in his home country. He won the Asian Cup and two league titles despite being obsessed with ice cream, going as far as eating it in the bath.

According to The Guardian, Inoha boasted that he would eat three portions of ice cream a day including one in the tub. He was also happy to offer his opinions on different brands while chatting with his team-mates.

The 39-year-old still loves ice cream to this day and occasionally makes recommendations on his social media pages.

Port in a Lucozade bottle

Jamie Vardy had a bizarre habit of drinking alcohol from Lucozade bottles before every game in Leicester City’s title-winning season.

In his book, From Nowhere: My Story, he wrote: “I can’t say why it started, because I genuinely don’t know, but I decided to drink a glass of port on the eve of every game in the 2015/16 season.

“I’m not normally superstitious but from the moment I scored against Sunderland on the opening day, I didn’t want to change anything. I fill a small plastic water or Lucozade bottle to halfway and just sip the port while watching television.

“It tastes like Ribena to me and it helps me switch off and get to sleep a bit easier the night before a game.”