[HN Gopher] Making a Maradona: Meat Consumption and Soccer Prowess
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Making a Maradona: Meat Consumption and Soccer Prowess
Author : wslh
Score : 44 points
Date : 2022-07-23 18:06 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ideas.repec.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (ideas.repec.org)
| mberning wrote:
| There have been a number of high profile athletes having
| questionable performances after going low meat/vegetarian/vegan.
| Most recently Canelo in his performance against Bivol.
| haunter wrote:
| Where does cocaine enter the picture? He was using it from the
| very beginning of his playing career. Got suspended 3 times by
| anti-doping agencies (most famously in 1994 at the World Cup)
| At 27 years old in 1988, and at the very height of his abilities
| and fame, the Napoli playmaker would lower himself to the
| following "physical programme". Sunday: Serie A
| match. Sunday night to Wednesday morning: continuous
| cocaine binge. Wednesday morning to Saturday evening:
| "cleanse", and sweat it all out. Sunday: Serie A
| match.
|
| https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news/diego-mara...
| HPsquared wrote:
| Did that "programme" improve or worsen his performance, though?
| Unless he was able to train harder perhaps.
| haunter wrote:
| Kusturica made a documentary about him where he said (or
| implied) he would have been a better player if he wasn't
| taking cocaine https://www.besoccer.com/new/do-you-know-what-
| player-i-would...
| sshine wrote:
| I just don't understand how cocaine doesn't make you a
| better person altogether.
| medo-bear wrote:
| today my friend you won the internet
| anonu wrote:
| That cocaine regimen implies there's some sort of multiday
| benefit to cocaine. Whereas it would make sense than any
| benefits from the drug would be from contemporaneous
| consumption during a match...
| strikelaserclaw wrote:
| sounds like all that stuff would have made him a worse player.
| yazantapuz wrote:
| Indeed, Maradona career was hurt by his drug addiction.
| smcl wrote:
| I wanted to check this because my memory was that while he
| did self-sabotage in various ways, I did remember him
| having long enough career that was largely quite
| successful. So his time in Europe finished in 1993 (aged
| 33) with a relatively unsuccessful period at Sevilla (26
| games, 5 goals) - which is as I thought. But I had NO
| memory of him playing four more years until 1997, and at
| Newell's and Boca no less! Incredible.
|
| That said his affinity for cocaine, alcohol and partying in
| general undoubtedly blunted and stunted his career, which
| is mindblowing considering the success he had. What a
| player.
| squarefoot wrote:
| I'm old enough to have seen playing live at the stadium
| Zico, Platini and Maradona. They were all excellent
| players, but of course Dieguito was out of this world.
| Unfortunately his inner weakness turned him into a victim
| of the sharks that very often approach young successful
| sportsmen in order to bring them into their shitty
| corrupt world luring them with parties, luxury homes,
| fast cars and lots of girls.
| smcl wrote:
| Wow seeing him live must have been something, not least
| beside Zico and Platini! The closest I got to him was
| watching him manage Argentina vs Scotland in a friendly @
| Hampden (they won 1-0), but he's a very popular figure in
| Scotland so it was almost like a home game.
|
| I suspect that if you come from a poor, vulnerable
| ubringing and you're thrust suddenly into this world of
| plenty and wealth where you are basically a god then
| you're going to fly off the rails somehow. It's happened
| quite a few times by now.
| yazantapuz wrote:
| The 1994 World Cup positive doping was ephedrine, not cocaine.
| Biologist123 wrote:
| Amazing information. Thanks for this!
| marsven_422 wrote:
| juunpp wrote:
| I am no statistician, but all they did was a linear regression on
| an extremely small population and concluded that, somehow,
| correlation = causation.
|
| > "Our outcome of interest is Soccer Prowess, which counts the
| number of players, born in a given country, nominated to the
| Ballon d'Or in the period 2016 to 2019"
|
| An extremely small population.
|
| > "The estimated coefficient on Meat Consumption is smaller when
| we include the full set of control variables, but remains
| positive and statistically significant."
|
| Doesn't mean anything?
|
| They somehow also conveniently ignored all the players who eat
| meat and don't make it. And the cocaine.
|
| I am not sure what this is about.
| jhap wrote:
| No causation reported
| ravi_m wrote:
| I am surprised they emphasize "development of the cognitive
| functions required to excel in soccer" but not physical
| development from meat (and hence higher protein) consumption
| wumpus wrote:
| > and hence higher protein
|
| There are a ton of professional athletes who don't eat meat and
| apparently get plenty of protein.
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| > There are a ton of professional athletes
|
| How many can you name?
|
| Or, since that would be anecdotal: what surveys have been
| done of professional athletes' diets?
|
| And if there are any, is the percentage of vegetarians higher
| than a comparable group in the same age bracket?
| ravi_m wrote:
| but that doesn't change the fact that meat is a rich source
| of protein which is beneficial for physical development
| wumpus wrote:
| Sure: some athletes get a lot of protein that way, and
| others get a lot of protein without eating any meat. It's
| beneficial for muscle-building either way you do it.
| matwood wrote:
| It's a lot easier today with the wealth of information and
| foods, particular for professional athletes.
| scandox wrote:
| > dearth
|
| I think you mean wealth right?
| matwood wrote:
| Yes! Thank you. Fixed.
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| If we consider baseball or football prowess instead of soccer:
|
| The Dominican Republic is vastly over-represented in the
| population of pro baseball players. I think you could easily find
| countries in Latin America to use as a control (same income
| level, same population, etc.)
|
| The answer is most likely not diet, but the first-mover effect: a
| lot of Dominicans became baseball players, so American teams
| started scouting them more, pouring more into player development,
| etc. Young kids started seeing it as a way out of poverty.
|
| I think American Samoa is also over-represented in the population
| of NFL players.
| colordrops wrote:
| This is ironic considering that Lionel Messi is essentially vegan
| most of the year.
|
| https://globalsportmatters.com/health/2019/06/10/veganism-no...
| supercanuck wrote:
| probably wasnt vegan during his formative years.
| FredPret wrote:
| Paraphrasing: "high meat consumption + low income = better soccer
| players".
|
| This will be biased in favour of Brazil, but it seems like a
| plausible idea that more meat can be correlated to better
| athletic development
| golemiprague wrote:
| Brazil are good at soccer simply because they are the biggest
| country where soccer is the main sport so it will be hard to
| control for that trying to find other reasons. It will be more
| interesting to look at small countries with relative success
| like Uruguay or Holland.
| smcl wrote:
| Population is something that as a Scot mystifies me. We have
| a population similar to Croatia, yet they've been an
| incredible force in international football while we have
| languished in mediocrity, missing out on most major
| tournaments in the last 30 years.
|
| At a club level there's no contest - our domestic leagues are
| usually ranked higher in the UEFA coefficient than Croatia's
| and traditionally we've had greater success in Europe. We are
| at a _slight_ disadvantage re our restricted ability to field
| emigre players (ie had Eduardo Da Silva signed for, say,
| Dundee United rather than Dynamo Zagreb he would not have
| been eligible for Scotland so easily) but I do not believe
| this has impacted us significantly. Though we are losing
| players to Ireland due to stupid self-inflicted eligibility
| rules at schools level - James McCarthy and Aiden McGeady
| opting to play for Ireland still saddens me to this day.
|
| I've heard talk of poorer countries turning out better
| players because at a crucial age (14-18) when you're choosing
| to commit to professional football you're basically choosing
| between rolling the dice at a professional career in
| football, or a more realistic longer term career through
| learning a trade or heading to university. And in this
| situation, it could be that the risk/reward is higher in
| somewhere like Croatia, Brazil or Argentina. But this doesn't
| explain why other small high-income countries like Denmark,
| Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland are routinely competing at a
| higher level than we are.
|
| If I was a director at the Scottish Football Association I'd
| be closely studying what these countries are doing
| differently because there's something we are desperately
| missing. I have my thoughts, but I'm just another armchair
| analyst with no power so it makes little sense to share them
| :)
| borroka wrote:
| The relative success of one country vs another is
| multifactorial, mysterious, and I would have a lot to say
| about it, or better, to speculate about, but for now I will
| simply say that Scotland is a small country, therefore with
| a limited number of candidates for international-level
| football, and is losing part of their talent pool to the
| sport of rugby. Most of the backs and some flankers would
| definitely be good candidates for top-level football.
|
| Croatia has basketball, but the talent pools for basketball
| and football do not overlap. Then, we are talking here
| about national teams. At the club level, the performance of
| teams from Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland is far
| from that of teams from the most, football-wise,
| prestigious countries.
| FredPret wrote:
| Pro rugby players and pro soccer players usually look
| like they're barely from the same species - I'd be amazed
| if anyone has the opportunity of choosing a first class
| career in both sports
| smcl wrote:
| I would strongly disagree that we're losing players to
| rugby. While rugby is (IMO[0]) the second sport in
| Scotland far more youngsters play football than rugby,
| and in practical terms the potential for making a career
| out of rugby is more unlikely than football. So I don't
| think that we're spreading ourselves more thinly than
| Croatia are, I think there's something more to it than
| that.
|
| [0] - I actually read a while back that Cricket had more
| registered players than Rugby in Scotland, but I take
| this with a pinch of salt. But make no doubt about it,
| our sporting focus is roughly similarly focussed on
| Football to Croatia's.
| 32MHz wrote:
| Where do the best Scottish players go to play club
| football? In the nations you listed, the best of the best
| end up in Barca, RM, Bayern, etc... They then return with
| best practices and an aura that influences the entire team.
|
| If Scottish club football is the pinnacle for Scottish
| players then this may be a factor?
| smcl wrote:
| The best Scottish players go south and play in the
| Premier League in England or the Championship. But
| England can be very sink-or-swim in my opinion, Billy
| Gilmour was (and IMO is) a promising youngster who has
| basically been told he's got no future at Chelsea even
| though he's very talented. There's been a potentially
| promising recent trend recently of a few Scottish
| youngsters being sought out in Italy - Aaron Hickey had
| signed for Bologna a year back and a great season, Liam
| Henderson is a regular at Empoli and Lewis Ferguson left
| Aberdeen for (coincidentally) Bologna this season. I say
| it's a trend because it's so recent and so unlikely,
| previously if a Scot played in Italy they were truly a
| superstar. We're talking Joe Jordan, Denis Law and Graeme
| Souness. Personally I hope Gilmour ends up in Serie A or
| La Liga.
|
| That said, you may have a point. Many Scots boys grow up
| idolising Celtic or Rangers. It could be that many get
| signed for their boyhood club and choose to remain there,
| even if a club who is better for their long-term
| development is interested.
| fredsir wrote:
| Or simply that a diet not meeting the nutritional needs can be
| correlated to worse athletic performance. And since meat is
| dense in nutrition, and since places with less meat available
| sometimes is low income, I think it's plausible.
| virtualritz wrote:
| Yeah, that's probably why the gladiators were basically
| vegetarians. ;)
|
| https://www.bbc.com/news/education-29723384
| hrnn wrote:
| At least the Gladiators that lost!
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