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The 2026 FIFA World Cup final is here, and the world is in the midst of football fever. With England knocked out in the dramatic semi-final on Wednesday, Spain is scheduled to play Argentina, the defending champions, in the final this Sunday.
As always, the players’ performance is under scrutiny, leading some people to wonder if footballers really can thrive on a plant-based diet. Fortunately, the achievements of the following 13 skilled and celebrated footballers are proof that it’s possible to thrive as a plant-based athlete, both on and off the pitch.
Read more: Are Lewis Hamilton And Kim Kardashian A Plant-Based Power Couple?
Are there any plant-based football players?
Athletes of all kinds are eating more plant foods to improve their performance and recovery. While some remain focused exclusively on the health benefits, others have become advocates for animals, the planet, and veganism itself. Footballers are no exception. While no known vegan players are competing in the 2026 World Cup, several footballers have embraced vegan or plant-based diets in recent years, including early trailblazers like Neil Robinson and modern players like Héctor Bellerín.
Héctor Bellerín
Talking of Bellerín, this Spanish professional footballer is one of the most high-profile vegan players in the world. He was named Global Champion at the BBC Green Sport Awards last year in recognition of his longstanding advocacy for plant-based diets, cycling for transportation, tree planting, and green initiatives.
Bellerín previously played for Barcelona and Arsenal, as well as the Spanish national team, though he is not competing in this year’s World Cup squad. He joined Real Betis, his current club, back in 2022.
Real Betis is, notably, one of the top teams in the Spanish football league, and Bellerín serves as the Chief Ambassador for the club’s “Forever Green” initiative, which aims to make its day-to-day running as eco-friendly as possible.
Last year, Bellerín championed a new Real Betis kit made from algae and wood pulp, while the Forever Green Initiative has continued to promote recycling, reforestation, and green mobility, such as cycling and public transport.
‘The way I feel physically and mentally, knowing I’m doing the right things, makes me really happy to be a vegan’
Along with his commitment to sustainability and the environment, Bellerín has also spoken about the health and performance benefits of a plant-based diet. After becoming vegan, he noticed that his ankles, which would previously become inflamed after difficult games, no longer required strapping. He has also reported increased energy levels and mental clarity, and a faster recovery time overall.
“The way I feel physically and mentally, knowing I’m doing the right things, makes me really happy to be a vegan,” Bellerín said in 2018.
In 2020, Bellerin invested in Forest Green Rovers, the world’s first vegan football club.
Alex Morgan
Alex Morgan was arguably one of the best American soccer players of all time. She began her career playing for the California Golden Bears while she was still at college, and went on to play for more than a dozen teams throughout her senior career before retiring in 2024.
Morgan has played at two different Olympic Games (London 2012 and Tokyo 2020) and won two out of the three FIFA Women’s World Cups she took a team to. She was the second American woman to register 20 goals and 20 assists in a single calendar year, and she was also named US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year in 2012.
Morgan adopted a vegan diet for ethical reasons shortly after she starred in a campaign video for PETA alongside her rescue dog, Blue. During a 2019 appearance on Emily Abbate’s Hurdle podcast, Morgan credited her unprecedented lack of injuries over the preceding two years to her newly plant-based diet.
“I feel better all around,” she said. “I feel like I have great energy, I feel like I’m sleeping really well, I feel like I’m just more clear-minded and not as reliant on caffeine as before.”
Chris Smalling
Chris Smalling is an English professional footballer and centre-back. He currently plays for the Saudi team Al Fayha, but was previously associated with Italy’s Roma. During his time in Italy, he adopted a plant-based diet to improve his recovery, reduce inflammation, and extend his longevity as a footballer.
In a 2019 video for PETA, Smalling noted that cutting out animal products has helped to ease his tendonitis, but added that, “ultimately, it was the animal welfare that kicked me on to make sure this is my lifestyle now.”
Smalling is perhaps best known for his decade at Manchester United, with whom he made over 300 appearances, winning two Premier League titles and an FA Cup.
Jenny Beattie
Jenny Beattie is a retired Scottish footballer who played primarily as a defender. She has represented Scotland in multiple major tournaments and, despite her position as a defender, scored 24 goals during her 143 national appearances. Beattie also played for Arsenal, Montpellier, and Manchester City, and is known for her versatility and leadership experience. She adopted a vegan diet in 2017 and has spoken publicly about its positive impact on her recovery, sleep quality, and performance.
“Initially, performance was the key driver,” Beattie said in 2022. “As footballers, we are always looking for a one per cent improvement. It took me a few months to be 100 per cent plant-based, but I felt the effects pretty quickly.”
She added, “I felt like I had more energy, I recovered quicker. My diet is more nutrient-dense. People think of things you can’t have, but it was much more nutrient-dense, and in terms of energy and recovery, the differences were like night and day.”
Russel Martin
Russell Martin is a former professional footballer and current football manager. As a player, he spent the majority of his career at Norwich City, though he also spent time at various other clubs and played for the Scottish national team from 2011 to 2017.
Martin went vegan in 2014 as a way to manage the symptoms of ulcerative colitis. Much like some of the other players on this list, he has said that while he initially went vegan for health reasons, it made him “more conscious” about other things.
In 2018, he told the Guardian, “I was struggling with ulcerative colitis and I did a lot of research into diet and what could help. But then when you become involved in that it raises your awareness of the ethical side. You actually look at it and think: ‘This makes sense.’”
Martin went on to become a part-owner of Erpingham House, a stylish and award-winning plant-based cafe, bar, and restaurant in Norwich, which sadly closed in 2023.
Karen Carney
Karen Carney is a sports journalist, the winner of last year’s Strictly Come Dancing, and a former footballer. During her time on the pitch, she was known as “the wizard” for her highly skilled play as a midfielder and winger. Over more than two decades of football, Carney scored 53 goals in 178 league appearances. She captained Chelsea from 2016 to 2019 and has received both an MBE and an OBE for her work.
In October 2025, Carney told Closer that she had been vegan for more than seven years. She said that going plant-based “changed her life,” and particularly her health.
“When I was at Chelsea, I was struggling with mental health, and when I did research, the one thing that came back was that a vegan diet could help, and also with inflammation,” Carney said. “I only did it for the last year [at Chelsea], and all the inflammation in my ankle went, and all my stats went through the roof.”
In May, Carney partnered with Beyond, formerly Beyond Meat, on a new UK-focused campaign to promote balanced plant-based eating and high-protein foods.
Read more: Kristin Bauer Says The Positive Impact Of Vegan Diets Is ‘Brilliant’
Toni Pressley
Toni Pressley is a retired professional footballer, a coach for the USSF/UEFA, and the author of a vegan cookbook. She has represented the US on the pitch with several different teams, and spent the bulk of her senior career playing for Orlando Pride.
Pressley is the only player in National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) history to return to the sport after a breast cancer diagnosis. She has cited her plant-based diet as a contributing factor in her health and athletic performance on multiple occasions
In 2023, Pressley published her cookbook Girls Gone Veg with Ali Riley, a former Orlando Pride teammate. During an interview with Adam Loiacono, Pressley said that she noticed she began to sleep “a bit better” after going vegan, and wasn’t “as sore between sessions,” meaning that she could recover faster.
“Then I think learning all of the animal welfare pieces to it, that kind of struck a chord with me, because once you know things you can’t really un-know,” she added.
Jermain Defoe
Jermain Defoe is a manager and a former England international striker who played for clubs such as West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland, and Rangers. He earned more than 50 caps for England and was known for his goal-scoring consistency. In March, Defoe was appointed the manager of Woking FC.
In 2016, Defoe founded a charitable organization, the Jermain Defoe Foundation, which works to improve the lives of vulnerable children, and later received an OBE in recognition of the foundation’s work. The following year, he told the Guardian that he had adopted a vegan diet in order to prolong his football career after his girlfriend suggested that he give it a go.
“In terms of fitness and fatigue towards the end of games, I still feel good,” he said at the time. “I’m trying. I still enjoy training, the buzz is still there and I just want to try to play as long as I can. So I do the stuff that will give me the best opportunity to perform and score goals.
Lauren Barnes
Lauren “Lu” Barnes is a retired American professional footballer known for playing the most games (232) and minutes (21,104) of any NWSL player. She played for Seattle Reign FC from 2013 to 2025, has worked as a football coach, and is now the co-owner of the USL Women’s League team Salmon Bay FC.
Barnes has spearheaded several sustainability initiatives at Seattle Reign and within the NWSL overall, and has followed a plant-based diet since 2014. In a 2021 article for The Sustainability Report, she wrote about how going vegan “fundamentally” changed how she sees her place in the world.
“Almost immediately upon going vegan, I felt the personal benefits of my new diet,” Barnes said. “I felt stronger, both physically and mentally. My recovery time was shorter and my energy levels were higher. Playing soccer year-round in the NWSL and W-League wears on both your mind and body. But after I made the switch, I honestly felt like I was getting younger season after season.”
She added, “Over time, I started to do more research into the diet. And as I did, I was blown away to discover just how much of an impact being vegan had not only on my own health, but on the health of the planet as a whole.”
Christian Burgess
Christian Burgess is an English professional footballer who has played as a defender for Belgium’s Union SG since 2020, though he recently signed with KAA Gent.
He began his career in England with clubs such as Middlesbrough and Peterborough United before moving to Belgium. He has scored a total of 33 goals in 552 appearances, and in 2023, Burgess helped Union SG win the Belgian Cup.
Burgess has been vegan for more than seven years, and he has previously stated that he changed his diet as a way to fight the climate crisis and protect the environment. He has also participated in various community projects, such as cooking and distributing plant-based meals at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dale Bennett
Dale Bennett is a football agent for FIFA and a retired defender. During his time on the pitch, he made the majority of his appearances with Forest Green Rovers, whom he played for between 2013 and 2018. He made 309 appearances in his senior career.
Bennett adopted a plant-based diet in 2017. “I’d tried the vegan food from being at the club for so long and it’s something I enjoy and why not take it forward,” he said at the time. “It can only benefit my football, it is not going to make me any worse off.”
He added, “Everything I have done this season, which I have done in previous seasons, I am doing better at. I don’t know if there is a correlation with that but it hasn’t had any negative effects. I feel fine, I feel like I have much more energy in the mornings and any effect it has had is positive.”
Neil Robinson
The late Neil Robinson (1957 – 2022) was an English striker who played in 286 games from 1974 to 1990. He was best known for his reliability, particularly during his time at Everton, and for being a pioneering plant-based athlete in the sport.
Robinson is recognized as the first vegan to have played professional football in the UK, and in 1981, he also became the first vegan to score in a top-flight match. He became a vegetarian at the age of 13 in 1970, and 10 years later, adopted a vegan diet.
Robinson told Great Vegan Athletes, “No one at the club seemed that concerned about what I was eating and that I was vegan. I was always one of the top three fittest players at all the clubs I played for so there were no issues. Had I been struggling with my fitness, I’m sure they would probably have suggested I eat some meat.”
According to The Vegan Society, Robinson gave a variety of talks at major events after retiring from professional football in 1990, including a half-time talk at the Forest Green Rovers football club back in 2014 for World Vegan Day. Robinson reportedly maintained a high level of personal fitness and strength well into his 50s, and one of his three children, Neil David Robinson, also became a professional footballer.
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