When Karim Benzema started playing the best football of his life in his thirties – winning the Ballon d’Or at the age of 34 – he attributed part of his success to putting top chef Alberto Mastromatteo in charge of his diet.
Now Mastromatteo, through his company Summumm, is advising Jude Bellingham as the England midfielder takes La Liga by storm with thirteen goals in fourteen games. Sports Mail spoke to one of football’s leading nutrition gurus.
Competitive sport is about the best margins and Mastromatteo believes that footballers are slowly waking up to the idea that nutrition can simply be a tool in the battle to be the best.
“It’s the big forgotten aspect in the football world,” he says. ‘In Europe we still have a lot to improve on this if you compare it with what is already happening in the United States.’
However, things are changing and he believes around 70 per cent of the top players now have their own chefs.
Jude Bellingham has had a great start to life at Real Madrid, scoring thirteen goals in fourteen games
Part of his success can be attributed to his collaboration with one of football’s leading nutrition gurus, Alberto Mastromatteo (pictured)
Karim Benzema credits part of his success to putting Mastromatteo in charge of his diet
Bellingham’s Summumm chef lives in and prepares the food that the Mastromatteo-led company has selected for him based on a rigorous biometric study that analyzes what best suits his needs.
“Jude and his family wanted this aspect to be controlled from the start,” says Mastromatteo.
“He has great people around him. He is very centered and realizes what it means to be at Real Madrid. He knows what he wants and does everything he can to make it go as well as possible.’
Every player is different and Mastromatteo has a professional responsibility not to discuss his clients’ personal recommendations in detail, but he outlines the general guidelines that all elite athletes should follow.
Rice, oats, quinoa, fresh vegetables, fish and some lean meat are the basic products for a top athlete and he says: ‘Saturated fats, they are not, shall we say, healthy fats, as with the omega 3 in Salmon or Avocados. generally not good for health.’
What’s surprising is that nothing is completely off limits and Mastromatteo says players need a day off from their strict regimes otherwise it will be too much.
‘From 18 to 32 years old it is necessary for a professional to have one day a week to forget everything and relax and maybe eat a hamburger or a pizza or whatever they want.
Mastromatteo (left) can regularly be seen on Instagram alongside the biggest football stars (Antoine Griezmann seen on the right)
The chef has been closely involved with Real Madrid and worked with the likes of Benzema, Bellingham and Antonio Rudiger (left, with Mastromatteo)
He has cooked for some of the game’s biggest names past and present, including Luis Figo
‘In the cycling world, for example, that is not very appropriate. But in the world of football, these players are under a lot of pressure. And these kinds of things help them calm down a bit and relax mentally. You can’t do a diet, a diet, a diet every day. Eventually they get bored.’
But one day off a week – usually rest days after a competition – doesn’t translate into forgetting the importance of nutrition all summer long.
“Vacation is the hardest part,” he says. ‘Then everything can go wrong. But there are players who bring their chefs with them. Eduardo [Camavinga, another client] took him this summer, for example.
‘Some footballers are their own worst enemies. They don’t have that drive and the people around them can lead them astray. Others say, “my friends are going one way, but I’m going to work with professionals who know these things.” They invest in their own health.’
Bellingham (pictured in 2019) now follows Mastromateo guidelines, which see rice, oats, quinoa, fresh vegetables, fish and some lean meat as staples of an athlete’s diet
However, Mastromatteo says that it is necessary for professionals to have one day a week where they “forget everything and relax and maybe eat a hamburger or a pizza or whatever they want.”
Clubs often recommend the services of companies like Summumm, but ultimately it’s the player who pays. “We have a health package that includes a coaching service to improve mindset, a nutrition service, a chef service, a physio service and a personal trainer service,” he says. ‘It’s very extensive.’
Mastromatteo is not evangelical, although perhaps a little in its mention of Spirulina, the protein supplement derived from algae that helped Benzema. ‘I am a big fan; I would recommend it to anyone,” he says.
‘Karim’s problem was a [muscle] fiber problem for which you would normally focus on animal protein intake, but he was not a fan of meat, so the Spirulina not only promoted gut health, but was also an energy-providing food source that was easier for his intestines to metabolize.”
A lot has changed since every footballer’s favorite meal was steak and chips. Nothing in the world of nutrition and diet is the same anymore and elite athletes are turning away from more traditional habits in an attempt to improve performance. Where Benzema leads, Bellingham now follows.