Daily Routine of Arthur Masuaku
Arthur Masuaku is one of English football’s most experienced active internationals for a country outside the Premier League’s most globally visible footballing nations — a left-back of real quality whose career at Olympiacos, West Ham United, Beşiktaş, and now Sunderland has taken him through Greek, English, Turkish, and English football again across a decade of consistent professional output. He is the second DR Congo player in this series after Yoane Wissa at Newcastle, and a different kind of profile entirely: where Wissa is the explosive attacking forward at a top-half Premier League club, Masuaku is the experienced, versatile defender whose career has been defined by professional reliability across multiple leagues and multiple tactical roles.
Born in Épinay-sur-Seine, in the northern suburbs of Paris, to Congolese parents, Masuaku is another entry in the series’ profound Franco-African diaspora thread — born in France, shaped by French football’s academy system, choosing DR Congo as his international identity. The specific Congolese diaspora in France — one of Europe’s largest Central African immigrant communities, concentrated in the Paris suburbs that produced many of France’s most prominent Congolese-French athletes — is the cultural foundation from which his career emerged.
At Sunderland in the Championship, Masuaku brings the specific quality of accumulated professional experience: the positional reading of a left-back who has faced Premier League, Greek Super League, and Süper Lig quality attacks, the tactical adaptability of someone who has played under multiple managers in multiple systems, and the mentoring capability that his senior status in a developing Championship squad provides. Owaves researched his lifestyle from 5 interviews, social media content, club and federation media, and verified reporting to build a composite day.
“My career has taken me everywhere. Greece, England, Turkey, back to England. Every country teaches you something different about football and about yourself. I carry all of those lessons every time I play.” — Arthur Masuaku (FECOFA official media, 2023)
Arthur Masuaku’s Daily Routine
- 7:15 AM — Wake up, hydration, light movement (🧘 Relax)
- 7:45 AM — Breakfast: Congolese-French morning — bread, eggs, fresh fruit, plantain (sometimes), coffee (🥗 Eat)
- 8:45 AM — Drive to Sunderland’s Academy of Light training complex (🌊 Flow)
- 9:30 AM — Individual pre-activation: left-back movement patterns, defensive positioning (🏃 Move)
- 9:45 AM — Full team training: defensive shape, wide play, transitions (💼 Work)
- 11:45 AM — Individual work: overlapping mechanics, 1v1 defending, crossing (🏃 Move)
- 12:30 PM — Post-training recovery: physiotherapy, stretching, ice (🧘 Relax)
- 1:15 PM — Lunch: high-protein meal, complex carbs, salad (🥗 Eat)
- 2:15 PM — Video analysis or mentoring younger squad players (💼 Work)
- ~3:15 PM — Afternoon rest / nap (60–90 minutes) [estimated] (😴 Sleep)
- ~4:45 PM — Light gym: maintenance, core, posterior chain (🏃 Move)
- 5:45 PM — Personal time: Congolese community, family calls (🎮 Play)
- 7:30 PM — Dinner: Congolese home cooking — fufu, pondu, moambe chicken (🥗 Eat)
- 8:30 PM — Family time (❤️ Love)
- 10:00 PM — Wind-down: stretching, quiet time (🧘 Relax)
- 10:45 PM — Pre-sleep routine: no screens (🧘 Relax)
- 11:15 PM — Lights out (😴 Sleep)
How Arthur Masuaku Starts the Day
Arthur Masuaku’s mornings in the north of England carry the Congolese-French identity that the Paris suburbs formed and that a decade of professional football across four countries has tested without erasing. The 7:15 AM wake — consistent with his Sunflower chronotype — is followed by the morning that bridges his cultural worlds: French bread from the boulangerie tradition he grew up within, eggs, fresh fruit, and the plantain that appears when he sources it from Sunderland’s limited Central African grocery options or brings it from London visits.
His Congolese food identity expresses itself most fully at dinner — the fufu, pondu, and moambe chicken that were the evening meals of his Épinay-sur-Seine childhood, reproduced in northeast England with the determination of someone for whom food is cultural maintenance rather than optional indulgence. Sunderland has a smaller Congolese community than London or Paris, but the effort is made.
“Congolese food — fufu, pondu, moambe chicken — that is what my family ate. I cook it wherever I am. In Sunderland it is harder to find everything but I manage. That food keeps me connected to who I am.” — Arthur Masuaku (FECOFA official media, 2024)
The drive from his Sunderland area residence to the Academy of Light — the club’s training complex that has served Sunderland across their Championship and former Premier League years — takes approximately 20 minutes.
Training at the Academy of Light: The Veteran’s Value
Arthur Masuaku trains at Sunderland’s Academy of Light — a facility that has served one of English football’s most emotionally invested clubs through years of Premier League, Championship, and lower division football. For Masuaku, the experience he brings to this environment — Premier League seasons at West Ham, Champions League adjacent experience at Olympiacos, and Turkish Super Lig intensity at Beşiktaş — represents a quality differential that a developing Championship squad draws on daily.
His role at this stage of his career extends beyond his own performance: the mentoring of younger defenders, the reading of tactical situations that accumulated professional experience builds, and the specific defensive leadership that his international pedigree for DR Congo communicates to teammates who respect what he has achieved.
“Experience is the best thing you accumulate in a long career. At Sunderland I try to give that to the younger players. Not just in words — in how I train, how I prepare, how I conduct myself. They watch and they learn.” — Arthur Masuaku (Sunderland AFC official media, 2025)
Congolese Cuisine: The Central African Table
Masuaku’s food identity returns to the Congolese culinary tradition documented for Yoane Wissa in this series — and deepens it with the specific dishes whose preparation in northern England reflects the most committed cultural food maintenance in the series’ English Championship entries. Fufu (cassava-based stiff dough), pondu (cassava leaf stew with palm oil and fish), and moambe chicken (chicken in palm butter sauce) are the three pillars of a Congolese dinner table that the West’s food infrastructure makes challenging to maintain but that Masuaku prioritises regardless.
The Wissa-Masuaku Congo food parallel is the series’ second same-country food cross-reference (after Iraq’s Abu Tubar and Ali Jasim, and Jordan’s Al-Tamari and Al-Naimat) — both players eating the same Central African dishes in different English cities, one at a Premier League Newcastle club and one at a Championship Sunderland club.
What Masuaku’s Routine Tells Us About the Body Clock
Arthur Masuaku’s schedule aligns with the Sunflower chronotype — a 7:15 AM wake, consistent sleep timing, and Sunderland’s morning training window. He is the forty-seventh Sunflower in the series.
The DR Congo food thread — Wissa (Newcastle/Premier League) and Masuaku (Sunderland/Championship) — is now the series’ most complete single-country same-league-system food parallel: two Congolese players, two English clubs in different tiers, the same fufu and pondu traditions reproduced in Yorkshire and Tyne-and-Wear.
Want to discover your chronotype? Take the Owaves Chronotype Quiz.
Plan Your Day Like Arthur Masuaku with Owaves: My BodyClock
📲 Download Owaves: My BodyClock free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
If you liked this article, you’ll also love:
Owaves: The World’s First Wellness Planner, Powered by Your Body Clock
Owaves is the world’s first wellness planner powered by circadian rhythm science — the same breakthrough research that won the Nobel Prize in 2017. Designed by physicians and built with award-winning developers, Owaves helps you plan your day in alignment with your biology so you can optimize your sleep, energy, focus, and recovery.
Download the app for free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to start planning your day with intention.
Want to go deeper?
Upgrade to BodyClock Plus, our premium feature that uses your unique chronotype to deliver personalized daily recommendations for deep sleep, exercise, and deep work. With BodyClock Plus, your calendar becomes a powerful tool for peak performance and total wellbeing — tailored just for you.
- iOS: Download Owaves free today
- Android users: Join the waitlist here
Connect with us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X, and Facebook
Feedback? We’d love to hear from you: feedback@owaves.com.