This is according to Gael Clichy, a veteran midfielder from France who plays for English Premier League side Manchester City.

Clichy says City’s new coach, Pep Guardiola, formerly of Bayern Munich and Barcelona, is barring pizza from the diet of City’s players.

And the club can produce as many experts as it likes,  but telling players what they can or cannot eat seems a little … invasive, doesn’t it?

Clichy also said Guardiola will not allow players who are overwight (by his accounting).

What’s next? Club nannies telling the players when to sleep and reminding them to stop after one beer?

Good soldier Gael construes Guardiola’s demands as an example of how thorough the new coach is in preparing for the long season ahead for players at elite clubs, who are generally expected to run 10 miles in any given match, most of it at sprint speed.

And The Guardian has found a nutritionist for Fulham, also an English club, who outlines why pizza — something of a post-match tradition in soccer, from kids to superstars — is a bad idea. Or certainly less than a good idea.

She said: “What players choose to eat after a match is never particularly healthy but the choices are especially important immediately after a match.

“You don’t get what’s needed from pizza. Players’ glycogen stores are used up, they need more protein and pizza is high in saturated fat and salt. Ideally what they should be having is fruit and veg, lean protein, complex carbohydrates.”

What would be a better post-game meal?

Says the nutritionist: “The ideal meal would be fresh fish high in Omega-3s, like organic salmon, with complex carbohydrates such as brown basmati rice and a selection of vegetables, or brown pasta with chicken, tomato sauce and salad.”

Oh. Basmati rice. That sounds like fun. Or not.

Soccer, the beautiful game, seems to be getting more austere across the spectrum of activities. Monastic, even. If a player can’t do his 10 miles in a match, with the required fraction of sprints involved, he is less likely to be in the lineup.

Until he gets that pizza habit under control and reports in at some cadaverous weight level as the season goes along.

It seems a bit cruel.

The nutritionist suggests top players are fine with restricted diets once they realize it can make them more effective in their chosen careers.

She said” Every one of them has a strong personal goal and if they think food will help them – if you tap into what motivates them, once they know they’re eating right foods it can only be good for the team.”

But how dreary it all is!

Can we be far removed from team demands for carefully limited sex lives? Bans on alcohol? Victory celebrations in which players make sure none of the Champagne slips between their lips?

Will clubs hire “watchers” to keep players from falling into sin and having a cheese burger or staying up late?

We once thought players were owned by teams when they were at the club.

Coaches like Guardiola want that ownership to extend into more and more areas of a player’s life. Maybe it is inevitable. Doesn’t mean we have to think it sounds like fun.