Illan Meslier has not let much slip through his fingers at Leeds United, but his loss has proven to be Jack Harrison’s gain with the one that got away this season. The goalkeeper spent part of last summer searching for a private chef.
In an effort to find that extra one per cent chefs are becoming more and more common in elite sports. At the summit of professional football, where incomes can be far more disposable, athletes are looking for ways to keep their focus on the job at hand, not how they stay below their allowed calories at dinner.
Meslier placed an advert and held trials at his Harrogate home. Kyle Bussey, a 35-year-old chef in the region, was among those who turned up.
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“I had to go and do a trial, but this was for Meslier, the goalkeeper,” he told LeedsLive. “I went to his place in Harrogate on a Saturday night, cooked him dinner and I thought it went well. I got an e-mail back a couple of days later and it just said ‘he loved your food, but he’s gone with somebody else because they can start next week.’”
Bussey had been scotched by a throwaway comment in an earlier interview. He told Meslier’s recruiter his notice period was a standard four weeks when, actually, he’d have dropped everything to start the next day with the French stopper.
A weekend at Anthony Joshua’s Sheffield home would follow in August. Bussey covered for the then world heavyweight champion’s own chef in the run-up to his ill-fated bout with Oleksandr Usyk.
Ultimately, the golden ticket was waiting just around the corner though. Harrison, following in Meslier’s stead, put out a similar call for chefs and this time Bussey nailed it.
Five other chefs were seen off and Bussey feels his personable approach may have swung it and in the process started a blossoming relationship behind Harrison’s pursuit of excellence. He said: “Personality’s going to count for a lot.
“I’m in there from 1pm to 8pm, Monday to Friday, spending a lot of time with him. He comes back from training about 2pm and generally stays in or does a workout in the gym.
“I spend a lot of time with him so I guess personality counts for a lot. We got on well during the trial date. I tried to make sure I came across as personable. He was laughing plenty and I felt like I made a good impression.”
As LeedsLive found in 2020, Harrison has devoted himself to marginal gains in all aspects of his career, looking for that advantage over his rivals. Bussey, inspired by the television series Masterchef, began his cooking career as a chef in the hotel industry.
He went on to gain a postgraduate degree in food and nutrition and has taught the subject across the Yorkshire region for almost the last decade, including roles as deputy head tutor at a five-star cookery school in York as well as working alongside some of the country's top dieticians and nutritionists for a digital healthcare company.
Bussey is the man behind the winger, ensuring he is fuelled in precisely the right way. As with many trends in the modern game, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are not too far away from the conversation when it comes to excellence.
“When I first saw the advert [put out by Meslier], I started looking into it and I came across a Jonjo Shelvey article from 2017 about him getting a private chef,” said Bussey. “You sometimes see articles on Ronaldo’s diet, his private chef, Messi, your top elite players seem to have private chefs and I guess it’s just filtering down. ‘If he does that and he’s banging in goals every week, then maybe it’ll work for me as well.’”
Under head coaches as exacting as Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch, it is no surprise to learn the club works in tandem with Bussey to ensure one of their key assets is on the right track with what he eats. Target numbers for carbohydrates, calories, protein and fat intake are sent over, but everything else is down to Bussey.
He said: “You’re not berated by the nutritionist every day saying ‘What’s this? What’s that?’ Over the last few weeks, he’s just asked if I could send the menu for Jack over. So I create the menus myself. They don’t have any input on that, which is really great. I have free rein to come up with whatever I want.
“It’s just trying to find cheats and tricks. I try to make food I know he’s going to enjoy and it’s not just steamed chicken and vegetables. We have desserts, but I must have over 100 concoctions of fruit and yoghurt in various different guises now. We had roast grape pastries the other day and even I was like ‘that sounds a bit out there.’"
Given Bussey has been at such close quarters with Harrison on a daily basis, he has that behind-the-scenes look at how the Leeds man deals with the ups and downs of the game. Anyone who has watched a Harrison interview will know just how level-headed he is with wins or losses.
One recent exception was the hat-trick he scored at West Ham United. The week that followed proved to be just as special with his match-worn shirt raffled off, raising more than £30,000 for Yorkshire Cancer Research.
“That hat-trick week was insane,” he said. “He was bouncing. His phone and my phone were both pinging. Everyone was saying ‘What are you feeding him?! What are you feeding him?!’ That was such a positive week. He was really happy. He was hearing from people he’d not heard from in ages. Everyone was getting in touch.
“I managed to get a picture with the hat-trick ball. He was chuffed after his shirt went for £30,000 to charity. No matter what the result has been at the weekend he always seems the same on a Monday.”
Like many of his team-mates, Harrison has played his part in what’s been an up and down campaign for United. Highs and lows have frequently come in quick succession. It’s not been for lack of trying, though. The Whites winger continues to push for any little advantage he can, especially if it means he doesn’t have to do the washing up each night.
