Fatty steaks and coffee with maple syrup: Erling Haaland lets us in on life at home

“It’s been a good day, doing lots of good things for my body and what I normally do in my life,” Erling Haaland says in the opening seconds of the video that marked the launch of his YouTube channel on Thursday. The recording is entitled “Day in the life of a pro footballer” but this is not the most enticing start. Will it be the usual run-of-the-mill offering about how a footballer has herbal tea, protein powder and a private chef to produce beans on toast?

It will not, it turns out. If the key takeaways are that Haaland has maple syrup in his coffee, stands in front of red light to get vitamin D and is sickeningly talented on the barbecue, there is more besides when the Manchester City striker invites the camera into his mansion of marble, clean edges and floor-to-ceiling windows. Maybe he is not permanently a footballer eager to mow down defenders on his way to scoring goals.

A Shaun Wright-Phillips-sized teddy bear stands in the corner of the kitchen, confirmation perhaps that the grizzly Norwegian is actually cuddly, although his young child may have something to do with the stuffed toy. Like any sleep-deprived parent, Haaland starts with a coffee, suggesting it is a “superfood, if done right”. The expensive bit of kit implies he has been on a barista course but a Milanese coffee aficionado is unlikely to have added the maple syrup. Equally, they have not scored 24 goals in 14 games this season.

Fried eggs and freshly delivered bread complete breakfast, all cooked by Haaland. It is refreshing to see his self-sufficiency, alongside his girlfriend, Isabel Haugseng Johansen. “I’ve been living alone since I was 16, so I have to cook,” he says. No ready meals for him.

Soon City’s sports therapist Mario Pafundi – “flat arse” to Haaland – arrives. If you think Haaland starts his physical preparation once he reaches the training ground, you are wrong. By 9am Haaland and Pafundi are in the home gym for massage and soft tissue work to keep the striker’s groin flexible. Considering the clearly natural talent Haaland possesses, it is a reminder that little things matter at the top.

With sunshine lacking in the Cheshire countryside, Haaland enjoys his spell in front of the gym’s red light machine. What is clearly not in short supply locally is red meat. A drive to nearby Greenoaks Farm allows Haaland to procure enough steaks to feed a team, together with raw milk (yes, seriously) and honey. He also stops to buy jars of bee nectar for the camera crew – a nice touch from the big man.

The lean, mean goalscoring machine likes “fatty steaks the most”, which does not sound in keeping with nutritional advice – but just look at him. After a little bit of training in the rain, Haaland has earned his dinner. Grace Dent should possibly take over at this stage, as two tomahawks are laid out, one marinaded, one just seasoned. It’s good news for the cameraman because surely Haaland and Isabel cannot see these off. While the meat marinades, so does Haaland in an ice bath, although that seems unnecessary given he has decided the only logical way of cooking a whole cow is on the barbecue outside.

Isabel puts “half a mortgage of olive oil” on the salad, leading to a Mr Bean-esque raised eyebrow from the £500,000-a-week striker, who knows the high price of the precious liquid and must be a first pressing type of guy.

The steaks hit the grill and Haaland, like any proud Yorkshireman, announces: “This is going to be absolutely lovely” – reminiscent of Fred Trueman preparing for a cup of tea. Surely Haaland has not spent his free hours down the years focusing on perfecting cuisson. “This is where the details are,” he says as he checks the meat. He creates a crusted and perfectly medium steak, eventually dispensing with cutlery to eat it.

If we learn two things, it is that Haaland knows the minutiae are what make him a superhuman footballer and that he is human after all. And aspiring strikers remember: maple syrup in your coffee.