How religious engagement shapes performance perception during Ramadan: insights from fasting Tunisian footballers.

Résumé

BACKGROUND: Our study explored how religious ritual engagement during Ramadan intermittent fasting (RIF) shaped athletes' performance perceptions and adaptive strategies in Tunisian professional football. We compared players who fasted only (G-FNRP) with those who also engaged in additional religious rituals (G-FRP).SOURCES OF DATA: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 professional footballers from Tunisia's League 2, divided into G-FRP (n = 10), who combined fasting with additional rituals such as Tarawih, Tahajjud, and Khatm al-Qur'an, and G-FNRP (n = 14), who observed fasting only. Data were analyzed through a reflexive thematic approach, using manual coding and Excel matrices to organize and interpret these players' reported experiences.AREAS OF AGREEMENT: Participants in the G-FRP group perceived religious rituals as a means of improving their spiritual awareness, resilience, and discipline, which they associated with a greater ability to cope with competition-related stress.AREAS OF CONTROVERSY: In contrast, participants in the G-FNRP group did not establish a direct link between rituals and performance but rather emphasized perceptions of fatigue, sociocultural pressures, and reduced psychological resources such as motivation.GROWING POINTS: We have shown that RIF-related religious rituals could be identity and motivational resources that influence how athletes perceive their ability to cope with performance demands. Understanding these dynamics can help to develop personalized strategies from an inclusive health and human perspective in sport.AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH: Further research should extend to different sports, contexts, populations, and religious ways of fasting.