It’s fantastic news that sportspeople across all disciplines are taking nutrition seriously these days and football is no exception. We recently had the very exciting experience of putting candidates forward for a sports nutrition job at a Championship football club. So, what was included in the job description and what does a football club nutritionist do?
Performance Nutrition
The role was based at the training ground and the essential functional expertise required included training, recovery, body metrics, analysis, evaluation and knowledge of supplements.
Time and commitment were key, it is quite a full-on role, e.g. the successful candidate was expected to travel to home and away matches to support the players in their performance and recovery. But that wouldn’t be a hardship for a football fan!
Candidate Attributes
In terms of candidates, we were looking for those who had experience working with elite athletes as well as the confidence and communication skills to motivate players to make healthier choices, in addition to essential wider stakeholder management skills needed to succeed in this sort of role. For example, being able to convince the manager of your methods and work closely with the chef providing food for the players (on both match days and training) to ensure nutrient requirements are met.
Qualifications
So what qualifications are needed for a role in elite sport?
For this role a specific qualification in sports nutrition was required, e.g. the ION Diploma in Sports Nutrition or a degree/masters/ PhD in the area. The club was looking for candidates to be on the BDA Sports and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENr), and to have qualifications in anthropometrics (ISAK level 1) in order to be able to assess the players’ body composition.
Recruiting for this fascinating and exciting role was another reminder of the huge breadth of opportunities available within our exciting field.