The World Cup international friendly warm-up games are heating up as we move even closer to the long-awaited FIFA World Cup. On 26th March, England called a 1-1 draw in a friendly with Italy, which for the first times since 1989 will not be playing in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On this day too, Brazil played away against Germany and beat them 1-0. This win was a reprieve from 2014 World Cup third-place playoff when Brazil lost 1-7 to Germany – Brazil’s Neymar at the time was injured and could not play. On 27th March, Russia played against France with a score of 1-3. France has a couple of internationally-known strong football players such as Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud.
On the same day, Spain went against Argentina in a friendly tournament and won 6-1. Argentina’s Lionel Messi – tagged the world’s second-best football player of our time – missed this friendly following a hamstring injury. Belgium won 4-0 against Saudi Arabia in quite the heated match. One of the most spectacular moments of this friendly was when Belgium’s Eden Hazard’s scored from his own half. Eden, although rumored to be breaking ties with Chelsea to join Real Madrid, says that he has no plans to leave the team.
Now that you are all caught up on the events leading up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, it’s worth noting that the process of preparation entails intense training, workout and healthy meals and even diet plans. A healthy diet especially gets the athlete’s body into great shape for the field.
How does the Vegetarian Footballer do it?
Vegetarian footballers are becoming a more common, growing and successful sight by the day. Although some may find it almost undoable, many football players have switched to a vegetarian meal plan and have seen tremendous results in their health, speed, and recovery period.
Baggio Hušidić is a 30-year-old Bosnian-American footballer player. He plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer. Baggio can play in any midfielder position and he has even been deployed as a left-back. He is a high-performance, plant-powered athlete who became a vegetarian in 2012, adopting a whole-food, plant-based vegetarian diet.
Baggio has no doubt in his mind that the vegetarian diet plays a major role in his improved performance as a professional footballer. After adopting the vegetarian diet, he noticed his muscles delayed cramping to way later in the game compared to when he would eat lots of meat, dairy, and other saturated fats and end up cramping early in the game. When he fully transitioned into a whole-food, plant-based diet, the cramping went away completely. He has a much faster recovery rate, his muscles recovering from injury and exhaustion faster than any of his teammates. He can now easily run long distances for a long time on the field with. Baggio even sleeps better now!
For a vegetarian athlete like Baggio to keep up his protein levels, he would need protein supplements that satisfy the requirement – since meats are not an option. Supplements are a convenient and quick way to gain lean muscle, which is relevant for an athlete who’s always working out, running, and engaging their body intensely at a moment. Baggio is one of the many vegetarian footballers realizing the benefits of a vegetarian diet. Stay informed on these healthy trends as you keep up with the countdown to the World Cup and the first tournament that will take place at Russia’s Luzhniki Stadium.