Why footballers are increasingly dosing up on caffeine
Sarah Shephard
March 17, 2025
If you’ve noticed players chewing gum during a game, you might have wondered why.
Did they have a particularly potent chicken Kyiv for lunch? Are they using it to help ease nerves? Do they have a cunning plan to stick it to the sole of Mohamed Salah’s boot in an attempt to slow him down?
No. The most likely answer is they are chewing caffeine gum. New data has found that 97 per cent of professional football clubs in England administer caffeine to players, with gum being the second most popular way to do it, and the most popular being caffeine shots.
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That 97 per cent is an arresting number when you consider that excessive caffeine was once prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) — 12 micrograms per millilitre was the threshold for urine caffeine concentration between 1987 and 2004.
Caffeine was removed from the banned list over 20 years ago but has been included in WADA’s 2025 monitoring programme to detect patterns of misuse. Despite that, caffeine has become part of a normal pre-match routine, alongside the essentials: carbohydrates, Deep Heat and a rousing speech from the manager.
But what are the benefits? How much is needed to improve performance? And what are the downsides?
In his 2016 autobiography, From Nowhere: My Story, Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy described squeezing three energy drinks and a double espresso into his matchday routine, starting with a can of Red Bull as soon as he woke up. “I won’t eat anything until I have a cheese and ham omelette with baked beans at 11.30am,” he said. “I wash that down with another Red Bull, which I also neck quickly.
“While we’re waiting and killing a bit of time, I have a double espresso. We get into the dressing room an hour and a half before kick-off, and I’ll have a third can of Red Bull straight away. But with this one I sip it all the way until we go out for the warm-up, leaving a bit to finish off when I come back in.”
It sounds excessive, but if you add up Vardy’s intake — three cans of Red Bull amounts to 240mg of caffeine; a double espresso is generally between 70mg and 120mg — it’s about 350mg, which is within the
European Food Safety Authority’s recommended limit of 400mg per day for a normal person. (Caffeine gum usually contains between 50-100mg of caffeine per piece, depending on the brand, while caffeine shots contain up to 200mg, and caffeine tablets between 50mg and 100mg.)
Jamie Vardy loves a Red Bull… or three (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
To have an impact on performance, research points to 3mg-6mg of caffeine per kilo of bodyweight being the target range. Dr Rob Naughton, a performance nutritionist who has worked with clubs and privately with international players on behalf of INTRA Performance Group, says the research also suggests “intakes of up to 9mg per kilo in certain individuals”.
Naughton points out that Vardy’s approach wouldn’t be right for everyone. “We would not recommend that someone hears of a Premier League athlete who’s banging in loads of goals doing that and following it straight away. Initially, they could try some caffeine — maybe one espresso or one caffeine gum — and try to find the sweet spot for themselves.”
Caffeine can improve performance in some athletes. One of the ways it does this is by reducing the perception of fatigue: as you exercise, your body produces a chemical called adenosine, which makes you feel tired, but caffeine blocks the adenosine receptors in your nerves, so your brain perceives less pain and fatigue. This helps you keep going.
There is also evidence, says Naughton, that caffeine can be beneficial for “improving sprints (a byproduct of improving reaction time), skills and fine motor control. So with a sport like football, which has a huge physical component but also quite a large skill component, it’s a useful supplement”.
A fitness coach at one Premier League club, who spoke to
The Athletic on condition of anonymity to protect their position, says that players take caffeine gel or gum before training or a match to feel “more mentally alert”. He estimates “at least 50 per cent” of the club’s players use caffeine gum daily, which they feel takes effect quicker than other forms.
“On a training day, we have supplements available for them to pick at if they need to and the most popular thing they will come and ask for is a caffeine gum just before we start, which we’re happy to give out,” says the coach. “On a matchday, we have all the supplements spread out for them in the changing room and they’ll just pick at them as and when they need them.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. There will be lads who have it walking out for kick-off and some who take it before warm-ups, 40 minutes before kick-off, but they will probably end up having another one before kick-off. It depends on individual preference. We’re not precious about how much they have and when, it’s whatever works for them.”
He says players are advised that the more they dose up on caffeine during the week, the less of an effect it could have on a matchday, as they might build a “tolerance” to it. But it can be hard to police habits when players are outside of the training ground.
Once upon a time, players would regularly socialise in pubs or bars. These days, they are far more likely to meet for coffee and most clubs have high-end coffee machines ready to produce the goods for players on arrival at the training ground. “It’s that whole coffee culture,” says the coach. “Since that’s boomed, the benefits of caffeine on performance is something that’s taken off.”