'It's routine at this point' - From the NFL to Florian Wirtz and Evander: How tart cherry juice became part of soccer’s search for an edge

These stories are too well chronicled at this point. Sports science departments find a specific food, drink, or product to consume. Maybe a coach will develop a unique method.

The team adopts it and wins a title. Then the method - whether it involves eating a certain fruit or planting an olive tree at a Premier League club’s training ground - becomes part of sporting canon. Suddenly, everyone has to do it. Tart cherry juice’s rise to prominence in soccer, though, has been a slower burn.

Soccer borrowed the idea from other sports, where athletes were already turning to tart cherry juice to support recovery after intense competition.

Research at Northumbria University suggested tart cherry juice could aid muscle recovery - the kind of small advantage elite sport so often craves. A 2010 study at Oregon Health & Science University offered further evidence of its potential benefits. Runners and cyclists were among the early adopters, with the latter turning to the dark red drink toward the end of long-distance races. NFL teams, including Bonci’s Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers, embraced it, too. It is now commonplace in the Premier League: Florian Wirtz was seen drinking it after being substituted during Liverpool’s season-opening draw at Newcastle in August.

Yet its specific properties can be applied to pretty much any endurance sport, Bonci said.

"You get the most for the least because that's the other thing. No matter when people choose to use it, big volume is not typically what an exercising body wants," Bonci said. "It can't tolerate it, and even after intense exercise, we want short and sweet. Give it to me and what I need in a small amount, and that starts my recovery process. And then when I'm ready to eat, then I can do something later."

The hyper-specific benefit of cherry juice, though, is its raw versatility. Athletes tend to want all sorts of supplements from various food groups. The idea that there is a panacea product that cuts through everything is a bit of a myth.

"It can be needs-based depending upon what the goal is, what somebody's trying to accomplish. And for an athlete, we can plug and play wherever that's going to be," Bonci said.

Different athletes use it in different ways, though. For FC Cincinnati, it is absolutely crucial in muscle recovery. Post-match, it is on the menu immediately.

"We're really focused on recovery and how we can get our guys recovered more," Maher explained. "And tart cherry juice fits into that realm."

Tart cherries contain compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Research suggests tart cherry juice may help reduce muscle soreness and support recovery after strenuous exercise.

"It's an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. What that basically means is the inflammation that we see our guys get after a game because they're just working so hard, they're running so much, they're getting pushed and shoved. Those tart cherries, in a concentrated form, can help reduce some of [the fatigue]," Maher said.

In a long season, it could be a crucial difference in getting the muscles ready to be activated again at the next training session - or even assist in the quick turnarounds between fixtures.

"Those nutrition components create your pinnacle anti-inflammatory antioxidant to scavenge all of the match debris that's in the body to kind of get them back to a more stable state," Maher said.

There are other benefits, too. That nightcap that Bonci offered the Chiefs every evening was not only meant to aid pure muscle recovery. Tart cherry juice also contains melatonin, which helps facilitate sleep - a crucial element in athlete preparedness.

"It is a natural source of melatonin and tryptophan. So there's a role to play in sleep, and that's also when people recover. It's not just while you're walking around; it's when you're resting," Bonci said.

Maher favors getting sleep-supporting nutrients through food and is cautious about regular melatonin supplementation. Her concern centers on the body’s own production of the hormone.

"If you take it over the counter, not in a food form, it actually downregulates your body's natural production of melatonin," Maher said. "So, if somebody's consistently taking melatonin, their body is gonna be like 'I don't need to produce it anymore.' And then you stop taking that melatonin, and your body's like, 'Wait, but I was getting this from somewhere else, and I don't remember how to produce it as well.'"

However, research has not established that melatonin supplements suppress the body’s natural production. A long-term study of prolonged-release melatonin found no suppression after treatment ended. The National Institutes of Health notes that evidence on the long-term safety of supplementation remains limited.

Still, that doesn't mean that every athlete will immediately agree to take every substance offered to them. Dietitians may be commonplace at the highest levels of soccer worldwide, but some experienced players can be reluctant to work extra elements into their routine. At least, that's what Maher found.

"The younger they are, the easier it is," Maher said. "As they get older, they're a bit more stingy with how they trust you, when they trust you, and if they listen to you."

Maher started at FC Cincinnati in March 2025. The club had never had a dietitian before. Some of the players were admittedly skeptical about having another staff member tell them what to eat. But one younger member of the roster changed everything.

"There is a younger guy on our team that I was working with to increase his body composition and get him stronger. He bought into me, and we have now gotten him down to the ideal body comp and body fat. And now the guys are coming to me being like 'okay Ally, I really don't want to feel this way for the game, or I'm like needing more energy'," Maher said.

Bonci experienced some similar behaviors with NFL teams.

"When we look at athletes, if somebody has 10 extra minutes in the day, it isn't going to be spent around in the kitchen. It's going to be something that I can do quickly that is going to have some benefit for me. Tell me why I should have it, and I'm willing to try," she said.

Yet if there was ever pushback, she was fine saying no.

"Ultimately, I'm not going to force anything down anybody's throat. It's their choice. They're big boys... but I'm going to give them the rationale for maybe why this should be part of their fuel kit," Bonci said.

For FC Cincinnati, tart cherry juice is one part of a broader approach to nutrition. The club has scored plenty of late goals this season, and Maher believes better fueling can help players sustain their performance through the final whistle.

"Now we're really known for scoring in the last two minutes of the match," she said. "That's where nutrition can have a really big impact with these guys. It's just making sure the guys are fueled for that 90- to 100-minute period is like the most important thing that we can do to help kind of sustain and make that one percent difference than maybe our opponent, so that we can score in the last 90 seconds of the match."

More generally, the feedback for nutritionists, dietitians, and scientists has been that their athletes generally feel better.

"Sometimes the difference is that I could push myself harder, or perhaps in practice I could push myself harder and have less soreness on the back end, which means I'm better ready to do what I need to do the next time," Bonci said.

Now, it's becoming part of the public sporting Zeitgeist, too. CHERRiSH, a Washington-state-based company, offers a slightly diluted version of the product that is packaged and sold. They have partnered with professional athletes, too.

"We do add a little bit of water just so it's pourable, but we found the athletes just drink it straight. I mean, they don't they don't care about they don't have time for it. They're just ready to go," Matt Haggart, Director of Operations, told GOAL.

Whether it helps in a weekly pickup game or on a cold, rainy night in Brooklyn remains to be seen. At the professional level, though, tart cherry juice has earned a place in players’ recovery routines - one small part of the work that goes into being ready to play.