“My first question to any footballer wanting to go vegan is, ‘Is it for ethical, religious or performance reasons? Or have you just seen that Netflix film The Game Changers?’”



Matt Lovell is a specialist performance nutritionist with almost two decades’ worth of experience in elite sports. He has worked at clubs like Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, and tells The Athletic that elite footballers are increasingly interested in pursuing a plant-based diet. “The Game Changers is a very persuasive piece of work,” Lovell explains. “However, the best way to describe it is as a propaganda film rather than a documentary.”



“We get this every so often, every time another big documentary comes out,” says another Premier League nutritionist. “It was the same a few years ago when they released What The Health. Footballers are interested in these films. They talk about wanting to go...