How to Get a Young Footballer to Eat Vegetables

Let me start of by being completely honest with you... a few years into coaching, I thought I'd heard every question a parent could possibly ask me.

It's usually centered around formations, playing time, whether their child should try goalkeeping, how to boost their confidence etc. (the usual stuff).

What I didn't expect (and yet somehow keep getting asked more and more) is some version of "how do I get him to eat a vegetable that isn't hidden beneath layers of ketchup?"

It's genuinely become a little trend (I guess because they see/know that I'm also a Sports Nutritionist and just want to ask the question).

But it's been asked to me enough times recently that I noticed it, shared laughter about it with the parents - and then thought... actually, this is worth writing about! Because underneath the slightly random surface of it, there's a real connection between what a young player eats and how they perform (and it seems that a lot of parents are stuck on exactly this problem).

So, in the least scientific and most "coach who's heard this a hundred times now" way possible, here's what actually helps!

Why This Ends Up On My Desk At All

Pitch & Prep has always covered both football coaching and sports nutrition - so questions about food aren't exactly unfamiliar territory for me... but what's genuinely caught me off guard is the level a lot of these questions land at.

I expected conversations about matchday fuelling, recovery meals, maybe the odd question about protein etc. ...but I didn't expect quite so many questions that essentially boil down to "please help me get a vegetable - any vegetable, into my seven year old!"

But that's exactly where a lot of parents actually need the help... right at the start, long before performance nutrition becomes relevant at all.

Because a player who's running on chicken nuggets and chips (a silly example I know) and not much else is going to feel it when they play.

They'll likely have low energy in the second half, slower recovery after a hard session, and concentration that drifts frequently during a session/match.

None of this is a character flaw in the child - and it's rarely something parents haven't already tried to fix... It's just a genuinely ordinary problem that happens to sit squarely in what I actually do for a living.

Fussy Eating Isn't Unusual, It's Actually Really Common

If you're dealing with this at the moment, then the first thing worth knowing is that you're nowhere near alone! as picky/fussy eating in children is enormously common - and it's absolutely no sign(s) that you're doing something wrong as a parent or that your child is being deliberately difficult.

A lot of it comes down to how children experience taste and texture differently to adults (something that I hadn't even known about or even considered when studying nutrition), along with a very normal phase of preferring familiar foods and being wary of new ones.

Thankfully it tends to ease with age... but "it'll pass eventually" isn't much comfort when you're staring at another dinner plate where the peas have been picked out one by one, or everything but the cabbage has been eaten!

How to Get a Young Footballer to Eat Vegetables Without Arguments

Here's the bit that's genuinely specific to coaching footballers (and the thing I keep coming back to with parents who ask me about this)...

Kids who care about their football tend to respond really well to food being framed around performance rather than health in the abstract.

For example, saying "Eat your vegetables" rarely works (on making a kid actually do what you're saying). But, "This is what helps you run faster in the second half" tends to work better, because it speaks directly to something they already care about.

You also don't have to make anything up either, because the real detail backs it up nicely...

A typical Premier League footballer's lunch genuinely does include things like steamed broccoli alongside grilled chicken and sweet potato - and beetroot gets a regular mention too, and it's often credited with helping players cover more ground before they start to tire (though, I'm not surprised that kids won't want to eat these - I hate them myself as an adult)!

Sergio Agüero has even spoken publicly about swapping some of the meat and sugar in his diet for more vegetables and fish on his doctor's advice - crediting the change with making him feel noticeably sharper and quicker on the pitch.

None of that needs exaggerating to make the point, it's genuinely what's on the plate at the top of the professional game! and finally, it doesn't need to be a hard sell either... saying (to the child) that "this is the sort of thing Premier League players eat before a match" (rather than a lecture about five-a-day), tends to do work (usually) well and get them to at least try and/or have some of it.

Small, Low-Pressure Changes Beat Big Standoffs

The other thing I'd gently push back on is the instinct to make mealtimes a battle...

It's completely understandable that you want your child eating properly - and it's frustrating watching good food go untouched, but pressure at the table tends to make fussy eating worse rather than better over time.

What tends to work instead is smaller and much less dramatic.

Getting kids involved in choosing or preparing food (even in a small way) tends to increase their willingness to actually eat it, and offering them the same vegetable(s) again and again (even if it gets ignored the first few times), genuinely does increase the odds of it being accepted eventually.

Also (another great tip which clients have said has worked really well for them) is blending vegetables into meals that they already like e.g. spaghetti bolognese, a smoothie, a soup etc.

It's a good way of getting the goodness added in a way that (let's be honest) they'll probably never even notice!

It's Not Really About The Vegetables

If I'm honest, the actual vegetables are almost beside the point - let me explain...

Getting a child to eat sprouts isn't really the win parents are chasing, it's just the thing that ends up in conversation...

What they're actually asking me is how to help their child feel good, have enough energy, and perform well without turning food into a source of stress (for either of them)! and that's exactly the kind of thing I'm happy to help with - so please do ask me any questions if you need any support with this topic!

Finally, if nutrition is something you'd like more support with - such as how to properly eat/drink before or after a match, or just building better habits generally, then check out my sports nutrition coaching page which goes into this in more detail.

There's also my Football Fuel Guide which is a free resource that covers a lot of this in a bit more depth too.

Be sure to also check out my other blog posts centered around nutrition too, as I've also written more generally about matchday nutrition in my post on nutrition tips for footballers of any age, which is a good lead-on after this one.

So, I hope that this article will help get your young footballer to eat vegetables (with as little push back as possible)! and if they do eventually eat a vegetable without any complaints, you have my full permission to treat it like a cup final!