Dancing on chairs and shaking walls: Inside Paul Pogba's 'wild' birthday party with secrets from Premier League's top private chef

Marsh was sharing his trade secrets in an interview with Mail Sport. It's clear that the World Cup winning Frenchman left the biggest impression on the chef, as he recalled a scarcely believable scene at a swanky Manchester venue. 

"Paul Pogba's birthday, I'll always remember that," Marsh said. 

 "He rented a full floor of a hotel in Manchester. It was wild. I cooked for him and his wife in this room. In the middle of serving the main, this enormous African band with drums and instruments come flying into the room. 

"They were so loud, the walls were shaking. Pogba’s wife was dancing on the chair with Paul. I can't tell you how deafening it was, it would have filled a concert hall. I remember just standing back, watching and thinking: no one would believe me."

Marsh's day-to-day was far less surreal, but it seems no less hectic. Boasting a bulging client list of the top footballer's in the land, he has used all of his professional training and business nous to build his empire. He learned from the very best, working in Raymond Blanc's Michelin-starred restaurant Le Manoir and sailing the Mediterranean as a private cook on super yachts. Serving up nutritious and delicious meals that help the player perform to their very best, he offers snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner which can be delivered to his clients' door, or prepared in their home if the players want it as fresh as possible. 

"I run it like a restaurant," says Marsh. "I ask what time they want to eat, they say six and I’ll be there at 5.30pm. Everything is prepped. I take my pans, my equipment, I go in and bang, bang, bang, gone. I’m in and out. I’m usually cleaned up and out before they’ve even eaten their main. I’m not interested in being mates. I’ve got zero interest in annoying you for three hours." 

At one stage, the chef was cooking fresh dinners for four Premier League players every evening. His routine would see him stop by the houses of Eriksen, Luke Shaw, Vitalii Mykolenko and Ian Maatsen. 

"Christian was always first" Marsh explains. "He liked to eat early because he had kids then Ian wasn't even 100 yards down the road. That was a lifesaver. 

"So I had two done before 6.30pm. Luke Shaw liked to eat at 7pm and then Vitalii Mykolenko used to eat late, which was perfect." 

Marsh also revealed some of the dietary requirements of his famous clients. For example, Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones' favourite dish is pesto pasta, while Rasmus Hojlund loves steak. 

The first dish he cooked for Kevin De Bruyne was a spaghetti carbonara cooked in beetroot juice after Manchester City's nutritionist told Marsh the root vegetable was great for exercise performance. While many Italians may baulk at the notion, it clearly made an impression on the six-time Premier League winner, as Marsh worked alongside De Bruyne for five years. 

Popular meals include chicken tikka masala, a salmon superfood salad, a rice pudding before game days and a cured salmon, cream cheese and pickled onion bagel to be scarfed down on the way to training. 

Marsh built his business by sending out countless speculative emails to potential private clients after returning from his season in the yachting world. One of the first respondents was from De Bruyne, who asked Marsh if he had cooked for other celebrities before. That led the young chef to 'fudge' the truth, telling De Bruyne he had a bevvy of clients before outlining his specific methods. De Bruyne asked him to start the following Monday, before recommending him to Ilkay Gundogan, with whom Marsh built a close relationship. 

"I never eat with players. I’ve never eaten with a player except Ilkay," Marsh said. "When you do six years with someone, I knew everything about him, he knew everything about me."

"That man loves football, all he did was play Football Manager. He was obsessed with it. I am so happy he’s at Galatasaray. We used to talk about him playing for Galatasaray almost daily. That’s his team, he’s supported them his whole life. I’m so happy he’s gone there." 

John Terry forced Marsh to up his game. The ex-Chelsea and England captain reached out to Marsh after he had appeared in a BBC Sport video about the individuals who worked behind the scenes in football. 

 "John was the guy that made it clinical. How things were prepped, how things were cooked, how things were packaged, how things were stored, how things were delivered. He liked things weighed out and labelled. 

"He’d FaceTime me every night to ask how heating instructions were done. He always said to me, 'We’re part of the one per cent club, Jonny. It’s all about the one per cent'." 

After Terry shared Marsh's page on Instagram, requests came pouring in. The chef now has more than 850,000 followers, with his Day in the Life videos offering a peak into the eating habits of his famous clients. 

Marsh's debut cookbook The Private Chef: Everyday Cooking is out on November 14. Inside, football fans will see the favourite meals of their heroes. So, even if you might not be able to play like a professional footballer, soon, you will be able to eat like one. It's just a shame that you will be the one that has to do the cooking.