Coaching the Nepali men’s national football team is a privilege. It is also a lesson in anthropology—the science of human beings.

Today’s players are not just athletes. They’re digital natives raised on YouTube tutorials, TikTok clips, and Instagram reels. They absorb information in fast bursts, process it through social validation, and move on just as quickly. Their attention is agile. Their patience, not so much.

This generation doesn’t respond to “because I said so.” They want to know why. They crave meaning, not just instructions. And that means the coach can no longer be a one-way broadcaster barking orders. We must become translators, facilitators, and even content curators—if we want to truly reach them.

Last week, we worked in small collaborative learning groups of four players to analyse fifteen-second clips from the UEFA Champions League match between Inter Milan and Barcelona. Anything longer, and minds wander.

Instead of testing the lower-order cognitive skills of knowledge and comprehension, we encourage synthesis and evaluation. Our players now watch elite football through the lens of our national principles of play. On the pitch, we rely less on lectures and more on guided discovery—setting up training tasks that challenge players to figure things out rather than wait for answers.

Every exercise we do must involve communication and decision-making. Running laps and passing the ball around a square is boring, unchallenging and does not replicate football actions. It’s not that Gen Z athletes are lazy or disinterested. They’re just wired differently.

Many grew up watching skill compilations more than full matches. Even when watching matches, they are ‘second screening’: engaged on their phone while the match is being played. So, we have to teach them not only what to do, but also when and why. The highlight reel may win followers, but football is built on context, not just content.

The mental side of the game has also changed. This is a generation more open about anxiety, yet more vulnerable to it. Social media brings validation, but also pressure. A bad game isn’t just a stat—it’s a meme, a comment, a clip that circulates faster than a post-match review. As coaches, we must teach not just resilience but emotional literacy.

What works? Clarity over shouting. Feedback over punishment. Connection over control. The days of authoritarian coaching are over. Gen Z players will not “run through walls for the Nepal shirt” just because we demand it. But if they believe in the message and the person delivering it, they’ll go all in.

Coaching today is about bridging eras. The fundamentals of the game haven’t changed—but the humans playing it have. If we fail to understand who they are off the pitch, we’ll struggle to guide who they become on it.

From TikTok to the touchline, it’s a different journey now. But it’s still worth every step.