How Will Erling Braut Haaland’s Party Lifestyle Affect His Performance in Norway’s Upcoming Football Matches?

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ULLEVAAL STADION (VG) Since Erling Braut Haaland (22) won “The Treble” late on Saturday night, he has been partying in Ibiza, in the streets of Manchester and at one of the football city’s restaurants in gold pyjamas. How is Norway’s superstar affected by that?

Already on Saturday, an extremely important match for Norway against Scotland awaits at the Ullevaal stadium.

Kristin Lundanes Jonvik – clinical nutritionist and researcher at the Institute for Physical Performance at the NIH – has the following assessment of the last three-day period:

– There is a total load here, which involves lack of sleep, probably alcohol consumption, and both of these two things will mean that it will take longer to recover. After all, feasting and alcohol will delay the body’s recovery quite drastically.

For Haaland, he has put some very hectic days behind him:

Lundanes Jonvik reminds that the body, more specifically the liver, must break down and get rid of alcohol’s toxins first.

Next, the body must take care of carbohydrates and proteins, substances that the body uses to recover faster.

– He has been through a lot of stress. It will take several days to be back to max.

In this case, she believes that the match on Saturday will certainly come in good enough time for Haaland to be back in good shape nutritionally. The training week will be something else, she believes.

– The training week suffers because you have to adapt a little. They must adjust the volume and intensity to the discharge he has participated in. At the same time, Haaland seems to be masterfully good at picking himself up again, again and again. Even if you as a researcher mean one thing, there are exceptions.

Gøran Paulsen, professor of physical performance at NIH, says:

– It can go either way, really. From no measurable effects to a fairly significant effect. You don’t lose a lot of physical capacity in such a short time, but it can affect a little.

– It goes beyond sleep and nutrition. Then there is the toxic effect of alcohol in addition which may have something to say. But it is primarily during the period when you have it in your body, says Paulsen.

He continues:

– But there are knock-on effects if your alcohol intake causes you to reduce your energy intake from other sources. Alcohol provides a lot of energy in itself. In addition to nutrition, partying goes beyond sleep and possibly the training quality of the sessions you have afterwards. But this is about such a short time. There is a limit to how bad it can get. If this had lasted a week, it would be a little different, he says.

Paulsen believes it is difficult to say what kind of adaptations need to be made for the superstar as he does not know how hard the Norwegian has partied.

– You can have fun without drinking, he may have taken it more calmly than we get the impression. It’s about trying to eat and sleep well. Then you recover quickly. A quiet session is often enough for you to be back and able to train normally. It is mostly not a problem.

National team manager Ståle Solbakken says that he “doesn’t know how much Coca Cola, Solo or beer Haaland has drunk in recent days”.

He is also ready to listen to Haaland’s needs.

– He must be honest about how he feels. How affected and tired are you mentally and physically? How quickly can you process these impressions? I have no doubt that he can do it, says the national team manager at Tuesday’s press conference at the Ullevaal stadium.