How do you fuel up before playing the biggest soccer match of your life…when you’re in a country that you’ve never visited before? If you’re U.S. Men’s National Team and Juventus F.C. midfielder Weston McKennie, you bring a chef. 

Like his teammates, the 24-year-old footballer is making his first-ever World Cup appearance today in Qatar. Just ahead of his debut on soccer’s biggest stage, GQ caught up with McKennie to talk about getting ready for the tournament—and why his pre-match routine involves taking a shower before the game.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: The World Cup is here. How are you feeling?

Weston McKennie: I’m feeling excited. It’s something that, not just me, but the whole team has been dreaming about their whole life. Not many of us have played in the World Cup with this national team before. I think the whole country is ready for it too, since we didn’t qualify for the last one. So, it’s been eight years of waiting for all of us.

When it comes to a tournament as major as this, especially being your first one, do you prepare for it any differently than you would another tournament?

Honestly, you just do the same thing you’ve been doing because that’s your everyday routine. But I think you are a little bit more cautious leading up to it because you don’t want to risk injury, especially since this World Cup is being played in the middle of the season. 

You’ve been recovering from an injury yourself. When you can’t do anything physically, how do you pass the time you would usually spend in the gym or on the pitch?  

If I’m not on the training ground or doing some type of recovery or something, I like to disconnect from soccer completely. I have a recording studio in my house and I like to make music. I watch movies or play video games. I’ve got two dogs. 

I always try to tell the doctors that the best way for me to recover is to just be home because whenever I disconnect from everything is when my body is free to regenerate.

I didn’t know you made music. Is that more for your personal creativity or are we going to get a mixtape soon?

I’ll probably wait until I gather up enough confidence to release it. But, I just like to be creative. I like to just write lyrics to rap and do all other types of things. I have a bunch of songs, but I’ll wait for the right time. 

Walk me through your pre-match routine. How are you getting yourself in the zone for a match?

On match day I just try to rest as much as possible. I’ll put on a Netflix show, probably something like The Office, and just sit down and relax. 

When it’s time to go, I’ll just listen to music. I couldn’t live without it. I listen to all types of genres. I might even listen to heartbreaking songs leading up to the game. It’s not all about aggressive pump-up songs all the time.

My routine in the locker room is to take a shower before the games most of the time, kind of like I’m preparing to be a model in a shoot or something. I put on body oil, my face cream, and my hair stuff. It’s just something that allows me to take my nerves off the game because I’m concentrating on something else. The always say look confident and you’ll play confident. 

What’s a typical day of nutrition for you?

To be honest, that’s always something I’ve struggled with. Every team that I’ve gone to, they always say that I need to be better at it. I just do what works for me. 

It’s a bit unorthodox, but every time I’ve gone on a strict diet and I’ve eaten everything that people have wanted me to eat and lost weight, I don’t feel good. My body doesn’t feel as comfortable and my body doesn’t have the same energy. I’ve done it about four or five times in my career where I’ve gone down to the weight that people have wanted me to. 

So for me, I go to training and afterwards I’ll probably have some pasta with chicken and marinara or pesto sauce, with a little spice. After I get home, I’ll take a little chill from eating until dinner. I have a chef at home and he makes all types of stuff, from octopus, to salmon, to chicken salad, to risotto. I try to eat stuff like that.

Throughout the day, snacking is my biggest weakness. I’ve been trying to get on healthier snacks.

When you’ve earned a cheat meal, or cheat snacks, what are you usually going for?

This last summer was very different for me because I was injured for like two months before the summer break. 

And this summer I was on a roll. I was eating less carbs and if I was eating carbs, I was making sure it was from quinoa or rice. I was doing salads. For the month I had off, I probably only had dessert three times. I really tried to cut off all of the sugary things. I stayed away from sodas.

If it’s a normal summer and I get to choose what I get to eat and I still have my workout regimen, I’m getting Chick-Fil-A or something like that. I try to do it during that time period because I know that when it’s time to get back to the field, I really have to take care.

I know I’m still young, but I’m not as young as I used to be. I can’t get away with a lot of stuff that I was able to before.

Speaking of being back home, you have a really diverse background in terms of places that you’ve lived. Which country has the best food in your opinion?

Italy has the best natural ingredients for food—the food we have there has a different taste. It’s amazing. As far as health wise and getting the best bang for your buck, I’d probably say Italy for sure.

I don’t think a lot of people would argue with you on that.  

It’s kind of hard to. 

I was wondering how you maintain your nutrition when you’re in a country, like Qatar, that’s completely new to you and you’re not familiar with the food options. 

The benefit for us is that we’re bringing our chef with us. I’m sure they’ll find a way to get all of the ingredients so we can eat how we normally eat.I think our diets will be pretty easy to maintain.

What’s going to mess with us is going to be the times that we’re eating at. 

Because of the time difference? 

That, and because the games we’re playing are like at 10 o’clock at night. That’s normally when we’re eating after the game. Now that we’re playing at that time, we have to find the right balance and the right timing to eat certain things to have the best amount of fuel to play the game.

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