One Team, One Goal: Putting Youth Mental Health at the Center

With the FIFA Men’s World Cup Final just days away, the UN Goals Lounge welcomed young leaders, athletes, advocates and partners for the second session of the Youth Mental Health Series. The gathering drew on the excitement surrounding football to open a wider conversation about youth mental health and the role of sport in creating belonging, strengthening well-being and bringing communities together.

Convened by the United Nations Youth Office and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, the event explored football’s potential to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and support youth mental health and well-being.

Annemarie Hou, Executive Director of the UN Office for Partnerships and convener of the Goals Lounge, welcomed participants and thanked the UN Youth Office, athletes and partners for helping bring greater attention to youth mental well-being.

“Football is definitely one more tool to really drive the SDGs,” said Felipe Paullier, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs. He emphasized the importance of placing young people at the center of action and partnering with them across generations.

“They expect intergenerational dialogues. They expect that we partner with them,” he said.

Moderated by Mary Connor, CEO of Common Goal and a former professional footballer and coach, the conversation centered on three coaching points: care, connection and community. Using the Real People, Real Talk conversation cards, speakers reflected on their own experiences and shared practical approaches from their work in communities around the world.

Jacques Kwibuka, founder and Executive Director of Informed Future Generations, shared how his own experience of emotional distress led him to support other young people. Through the organization’s “No One Is Immune” program, school-based clubs provide spaces for young people to build friendships, recognize signs of distress and learn ways to seek and offer support.

Hajar Abufazl, former co-captain of the Afghanistan women’s national football team, spoke about using sport to support refugee and immigrant youth. She argued that young people experiencing hardship need opportunity and support rather than being treated as problems to be solved.

“They don’t need to be fixed. They need opportunities,” she said, emphasizing the importance of safe spaces, understanding coaches and access to sport.

Reflecting on the impact of online abuse, Brazilian World Cup winner Gilberto Silva described how hostile messages once left him afraid to leave his home. His experience highlighted that connection alone is not enough: online spaces must also protect people from racist, hateful and abusive content.

The dialogue also highlighted how mental well-being is shaped by wider social conditions. Social worker and researcher, Aishworya Shrestha drew attention to poverty, discrimination and gender-based violence. She explained that the willingness to care must be supported by infrastructure, resources and the emotional capacity to support others.

“Care requires infrastructure, care requires emotional bandwidth,” she said.

Further insights came from former professional athletes Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Daniel Amokachi who reflected on isolation, self-doubt and difficult moments in their careers, underscoring the importance of families, teammates and wider support networks. Panha Theng, a Cambodian storyteller and co-founder of Sampi TV and 606 Digital, further underscored that healing cannot happen in isolation and requires meaningful connections with others.

“The healing process starts with care,” she said. “You need your community. You need connections. You need meaningful connections.”

Across different sports, countries and life experiences, the speakers returned to the same lesson: youth mental health is both deeply personal and connected to the systems and communities around us. Addressing it begins with listening, creating spaces where people feel safe to speak and recognizing care as a shared responsibility.

As Connor reminded participants, complex challenges do not require a perfect starting point—but they do require a beginning: “We have to start somewhere.”