Argentine player Gonzalo Higuaín has taken everyone by surprise in Europe with his goalscoring frenzy. He has netted 21 goals in 21 games, making him the top scorer in Europe. Even Roberto Mancini, the coach of Napoli’s biggest rival for the Scudetto, Inter de Milan, is impressed: “Higuaín is in Italy what Messi is for the rest of the world. He is simply giving Napoli that advantage no other team has.”
Higuaín’s success is especially surprising given the terrible year he had. How can we forget his hand-to-hand miss against German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the highly contested 2014 World Cup Final?
It’s also hard to forget the memory of Higuaín missing a last-minute shot in the Copa América final against Chile, making Argentine fans even more miserable when he missed the penalty shootout.
A highlight of Argentinian’s terrible year is also the fact that the striker missed a penalty shot in the last game of the season against Lazio, when it was tied 2-2 – a game Lazio would eventually win 4-2, leaving Napoli out of the Champions League.
The Argentine has turned it all around and is leading Napoli to their first Serie A title since the 1989-1990 season. The last time Napoli was leading the league past the half of the season, Diego Maradona was still the star of the team.
So what brought on the change? His great diet, apparently.
Higuaín has stopped eating red meat, limiting his diet to fish and other seafood for protein. This is not to say, however, that Gonzalo has become a pescatarian or is moving towards vegetarianism, but as he explained in an interview with Argentine newspaper Olé, he is following the recommendation of a renowned Italian doctor named Giuliano Poser. The striker has also replaced sugar with honey, and completely eliminated fruits from his daily diet.
Using a complex mathematical formula, the Italian physician measures how muscles react to specific foods. It is reported that he also helped Lionel Messi after the 2013-2014 season, when he was not at the top of his game. Higuaín’s involvement with Dr. Poser has meant a loss of eight pounds and lots of goals.
It remains to be seen how long-lasting the effects of the diet will be, but what is certain is that Dr. Poser will get plenty of attention – and new patients.