Leicester star Jamie Vardy reveals match-day diet that consists of three Red Bulls, a double espresso and an omelette
Last season's Premier League hero also tells of boss Claudio Ranieri's crude nickname he gave the motormouth striker
AT the start of the 2013/14 season I made some changes to my pre-match routine — and it’s remained the same to this day.
With a traditional 3pm Saturday kick-off, I’ll have a can of Red Bull as soon as I wake up, which is gone in 30 seconds.
I don’t have breakfast and won’t eat anything until I have a cheese-and-ham omelette with baked beans at 11.30am.
I wash that down with another Red Bull, which I also neck quickly.
While we’re waiting and killing a bit of time, I have a double espresso, normally with centre-half Marcin Wasilewski.
We get into the dressing room an hour and a half before kick-off, and I’ll have a third can of Red Bull straight away.
But with this one I sip it all the way until we go out for the warm-up, leaving a bit to finish off when I come back in.
So three Red Bulls, a double espresso and a cheese-and-ham omelette is what makes me run around like a nutjob on a match day.
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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.
By now Claudio Ranieri had been in charge for a couple of months and he’d got to know us all pretty well, as personalities as well as players.
One day, because I was doing my usual thing of rabbiting on in the dressing room, he told me to turn the radio off.
I just looked at him, confused, and Claudio said ‘You, you’re always talking. You’re like f***ing radio. You, radio w****r!’
My new nickname was coined.
I learned a few Italian phrases from Andrea Azzalin, the fitness coach Claudio brought with him to the club, but I don’t throw them all at the manager.
I’ll say ‘bastardo’ when he calls me by my nickname, and we both have a laugh about it, but I know that I can’t go too far with it.
He is the gaffer, after all.
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