DECLAN RICE has established himself as one of the Premier League’s signings of the season – and his diet has played a big part.
The 25-year-old became Arsenal‘s most expensive player when he completed a £105million switch from West Ham last summer.
And now he is targeting European glory with England.
Rice has been named in Gareth Southgate’s 33-man provisional England squad ahead of Euro 2024 and he is almost guaranteed to be making the trip to Germany next month.
The midfielder has already played over 4,200 minutes of football this season, but his “game-changing” diet has enabled him to perform at his best throughout.
In an interview with Men’s Health UK, Rice revealed he is usually fuelled by a stack of pancakes on match day.
He said: “I have four pancakes before a game. Covered in syrup or honey.
“I swear to God, it’s the best thing… When I joined the club, I could see the [Arsenal] players eating them and thought to myself, ‘What is going on here?’ But honestly, it’s been a game changer.
“I don’t understand the science behind it, what’s in them or anything like that, but it gives me such a high energy boost.
“I think that’s why I’m able to rattle around the pitch so much…If we’re playing at 5.30pm, I’ll sometimes have eight pancakes in a day.
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“I’ll have some at breakfast and I’ll have some more at 3.30pm before we play.”
Rice played a crucial role in Arsenal’s Premier League title charge this season.
The Gunners finished second in the table, two points adrift of Manchester City after taking the race to the final day.
By Troy Deeney
THERE are certain people that you come across in football and you know instantly who they are, what they’re about and what the trajectory of their life is going to be.
Anyone who has worked or grown up with Declan Rice knows that he has always been destined for the top.
When he was at West Ham, he was a centre-half who played in midfield purely to help out and ended up excelling.
The way he used to listen and learn from his old captain Mark Noble and be a student of the game was second to none.
And because of that, whenever I interacted with him on a football pitch, I never felt the need to be disrespectful towards him because there was just a pure will to win.
We would tell each other to ‘do one’ every now and again but then I would get these weird moments when he would do something special and I couldn’t help but say, ‘Good touch, mate’.
He had this joyful atmosphere around him which you can see in all of his interviews, even now at Arsenal. You never see him get in trouble, being outlandish, but he has that jokey personality.
He is still quite kiddish at 25, yet with a very serious body and mind in terms of being the best player he can be.
When he was announced as England captain against Belgium, there was no outrage, no shock or surprise or, ‘Why him?’. It was more a sense of, ‘Yeah, that makes sense’.
There is no doubt in my mind that he is in line to take the armband for his country full-time after Harry Kane moves on, alongside his midfield partner Jude Bellingham.
Read Troy Deeney’s column in full.
