Youseff Chippo had a secret.
A few months into his life as a football professional in Europe, Chippo, a Moroccan midfielder, was trying to prove himself and didn’t want to do anything that could harm his chances of success. That included the revelation that he was fasting for Ramadan, a normal practice for the world’s billion Muslims, but not in the dressing room of Portugal’s FC Porto in the winter of 1997.
The team’s double practices – morning and afternoon – were tough. Participating while going without food and water from sunrise to sunset made things more difficult. Finally, after silently enduring days of dizziness and headaches, Chippo came clean and the club quickly put a plan in place to preserve his energy and his health.
For decades, however, other Muslim players felt teams were less accommodating, at least officially. So in a sport where constant play and a lack of substitutes offer few opportunities for a mid-match trip to the bench, those players have instead long relied on ingenuity and makeshift solutions to break their fast: teammates who get injured just after sunset have imitated or embellished. to buy a moment when their Muslim colleagues can rush to the sidelines; a few dates or a sugary drink slipped into an employee’s hand at the agreed hour; trainers rushing out to tend to an injured knee with equipment oddly well stocked with bananas.
But more recently, football, which once saw fasting by Muslim players as something to be discouraged or criticized, is actively changing its behavior. In a shift that reflects both the increasing prevalence and rising value of football’s Muslim stars, some of the world’s richest leagues and teams – with one notable exception – have moved to fully embrace fasting during Ramadan.
In Europe, this means that many Muslim players now benefit from tailor-made nutrition plans before and during the month-long holiday; quick practice schedules; and even league-sanctioned stoppages that allowed them to break their fast on the field during matches.
Some changes reflect a new acceptance of diversity in wealthy leagues such as the English Premier League, whose reach and fan base long ago spread beyond domestic borders. There are also more practical reasons for the changes. Muslim players now represent an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the world’s elite teams, and those players are increasingly speaking out about what they need.
For example, two seasons ago, Liverpool forward Sadio Mané asked his team captain to approach coach Jürgen Klopp about moving daily training during Ramadan to the morning so that he and other Muslims in the team, such as star striker Mohammed Salah , could participate. closer to their pre-dawn meal. Klopp obliges.
“They take it very seriously because they understand how important it is for me and also important for them because they have to keep me fit,” said Mohamed Elneny, an Egyptian midfielder for another top Premier League club, Arsenal.
Elneny, 31, is one of three Arsenal players who are fasting during Ramadan this season. The team, he said, starts preparing players about two weeks before the first Lent, going over “literally everything” players need to maintain peak performance. The process is repeated the day before Ramadan begins. Other Premier League clubs and dozens of other teams across Europe are now doing the same.
Leagues in England and the Netherlands have also introduced rules that explicitly allow a so-called Ramadan break during matches, and German referees have the power to stop play for the same reason.
But not every country participates.
The French football federation recently came under criticism after it issued guidelines telling teams and officials not to interrupt play so players could break their fast, and for banning players training with federation teams from fasting.
French authorities defended the guidelines, saying they were required by the federation’s rules on secularism. But at least one top player left the national team camp in protest.
Others continue to promote inclusion and education. In England, the Premier League has allowed clubs with Muslim players to arrange short breaks with referees at sunset since 2021. And the players’ union, the Professional Footballers’ Association, has produced a 30-page document that is a mix of Ramadan primer and tips on fasting best practices.
“Rather than asking Muslims to adapt to the environment, it is better to understand it the other way around,” said Maheta Molango, the union’s CEO.
That kind of knowledge was not always widely available. In Porto in 1997, Chippo’s coach, Fernando Santos, listened patiently as the player explained why he was fasting, then helped him reduce his workload. But when Chippo moved to England two years later, he took matters into his own hands again.
There, whenever the match schedule clashed with iftar – the quick evening meal – Chippo would enlist a team staffer to hover around the edge of the field with dates and a water bottle and run over at the right time, usually early in the afternoon. second half.
The first known example of an organized stoppage in the Premier League occurred three years ago, during a match between Crystal Palace and Leicester. Former Crystal Palace doctor Zafar Iqbal said the medical staff of both teams approached the referee before the match about the need for a break. At the agreed time, Palace’s goalkeeper hung on to a free-kick to make it happen.
“When the ball went out of play, play was stopped and the two players ran to the sideline to have a drink and get some dates,” Mr Iqbal said. “No one else in the stadium realized it because it happened quickly.”
That slick process went largely unnoticed at the time and only came to light when one of the Muslim players involved thanked the goalkeeper, the league and the teams the next day.
Harry Redknapp, a popular England former manager, said his introduction to Ramadan came in 2000 when he was coaching West Ham. He recalled his shock when the team’s star striker, Frédéric Kanouté, a Frenchman of Malian descent, told him he would not eat or drink during the day for the rest of the month.
“I had no idea when it first came,” Redknapp said. “I didn’t actually know what it meant.”
Redknapp later moved to Portsmouth, where the team included more Muslim players, including Sulley Muntari, a Ghanaian known for his tireless running. There, the club arranged for snacks and drinks to be ready when the Ramadan matches started in the evening.
But even then, Redknapp said, the teams had no nutritionists to guide them. “I think they ran off during a game once,” he said of a game, “and we gave them a couple of Mars bars.”
Muntari’s fast would later make headlines when he moved to Italy, where his manager at Inter Milan, José Mourinho, once pulled him out of a match due to what he called a lack of energy. Muntari “had problems related to Ramadan,” Mourinho told reporters, suggesting the holy month “has not arrived at the ideal time for a player to play a football match.” The coach says his comments were taken out of context.
At Arsenal, Elneny said he takes part in every training session during Ramadan, adjusting what he eats during his morning and evening meals based on the expected intensity of the practice sessions.
On match days, he said, if he is picked to start, he will benefit from a dispensation which he believes will allow him to make up the day’s fast at a later time. In a league as fiercely competitive as the Premier League, he said he didn’t want to do anything that would make his teammates ‘doubt’ his commitment.
Despite the now common presence of Muslims in Premier League dressing rooms, knowing that a teammate cannot even have a sip of water during training or quick matches can be confusing for non-Muslim teammates. “Their faces change,” Elneny said.
Some are curious. Ahmed Elmohamady, an Egyptian defender who played in England for more than a decade, said one of his former teammates, Irishman Paul McShane, even joined him for a year of fasting.
“It was great to see,” Elmohamady said, though he admitted McShane didn’t last long. “He did it once, but he said it would be too hard to do it for 30 days.”