Former A Lyga striker Lukas Kochanauskas, who during his career represented clubs such as Trakai (now Riteriai), Panevėžio Ekranas, Liepājas Metalurgs, Atlantas Klaipėda and Pakruojo Kruoja, has found a new place in football after ending his playing career. The former Lithuania U-21 international now dedicates most of his time to youth development, working with young players and focusing particularly on their physical preparation. Kochanauskas last appeared in Lithuania’s top division in May 2021, but football has remained at the centre of his life.
These days he works across several youth development programmes in Vilnius, running additional training sessions for children from different academies through projects organised together with the Lithuanian Football Federation, Ozo school and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. Alongside that he also works as the physical preparation coach for Lithuania’s U-15 national team and trains players of the same age group at the FK Vilnius academy.
“Now I rarely think about my playing career,” Kochanauskas says. “Most of my time is dedicated to working with children and encouraging them to stay active through football.”
Working with young players every day has also given him a clear perspective on how much the mentality of the modern generation has changed. Kochanauskas himself grew up in a football family in the Lithuanian town of Kybartai and began kicking the ball at a very young age. By the time he was six he had already started playing football seriously, guided mainly by his father Rimvydas Kochanauskas, who worked as a football coach for most of his life. His grandfather Vytautas Kochanauskas was also a respected sports coach who worked with both football and ice hockey players, and a sculpture in his honour still stands in Kybartai.
Growing up in such an environment meant that football was never far away, although in earlier decades the town also had a strong culture of other sports such as ice hockey and table tennis. Even today Kochanauskas enjoys following hockey during the Winter Olympics and World Championships.
Yet when he compares his childhood with the experiences of young players today, the differences are striking. According to Kochanauskas, the biggest change lies in the way children and their parents approach sport. In his view, modern football culture sometimes creates expectations that success can come without the same level of discipline and sacrifice that previous generations considered normal.
“Every day I see how kids and their parents approach football today,” he says. “If a child feels even the slightest discomfort, maybe a sore muscle, you can already expect he won’t come to training for a couple of weeks.”
For Kochanauskas, the right mentality means showing up regardless of small setbacks and continuing to work on development even when a player cannot train fully. “If someone has a cracked finger, I still expect them to come to training,” he explains. “They can juggle the ball, work on technique, run or do something useful for their development. Parents and children today think that if something hurts, the best medicine is rest. No – the best medicine is movement.”
The story he often remembers from earlier generations perfectly illustrates the difference. His father once coached a player named Donatas Burbulevičius, who demonstrated extraordinary determination even while injured. According to Kochanauskas, Burbulevičius once walked ten kilometres to training on crutches with a broken leg. During the session he would juggle the ball with his healthy foot or with his head, simply to stay involved in training and show his dedication. For Kochanauskas this kind of attitude reflects the character that once defined young footballers.
In his opinion, modern children grow up in very different circumstances. “Today kids have everything given to them,” he says. “Their parents prepare everything and drive them to training. When they arrive they already demand things and show their own rights and caprices. They want everything to be given to them, but they don’t want to put in the work.”
Many young players dream about becoming global stars such as Neymar, but Kochanauskas believes few understand the work required to reach that level. “They want to be superstars like Neymar, but they don’t want to put in the work. If they train four times a week they already think it’s a lot. If you suggest seven sessions they say the workload is too big. When we were kids we didn’t even know what the word ‘workload’ meant.”
For him the question is simple: how can a young player expect to become a professional footballer with such an approach? “How can you become a footballer if you only train four times per week?” he asks. “If you want to become something in life, you must work harder than everyone else. Look at examples like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan or Cristiano Ronaldo.”
His own career required exactly that level of dedication, especially when recovering from serious injuries. Kochanauskas suffered three anterior cruciate ligament tears in the same knee, an open fracture of the same leg, shoulder and collarbone injuries, and several cartilage operations. In total he underwent more than ten surgeries during his career. After the open fracture alone he spent eleven months away from football, while ACL injuries usually required seven to eight months of rehabilitation each time.
During those periods the discipline required to return to the field was enormous. Kochanauskas remembers waking up at five in the morning to go to the gym and strengthen his muscles after surgery. After the gym session he would attend school, then training, then return to school before finishing the day with another training session in the evening. At the time he did not consider the routine extraordinary. “I never thought about it as something special,” he says. “I just knew what I wanted.”
Despite his criticism of modern youth football, Kochanauskas believes Lithuania still produces talented and creative players. When speaking about current footballers who stand out for their creativity, he highlights Paulius Golubickas and Daniel Romanovskij as examples of players capable of producing something unexpected on the pitch. In his view, creative attacking players should be able to surprise defenders and entertain spectators, even without touching the ball. Movement, intelligence and unpredictability are qualities that he believes make attacking football exciting.
During his playing career Kochanauskas himself operated mainly in attacking roles. Although he could play on the wing or as a striker, he felt most comfortable just behind the forward line where he could create chances and connect attacking play. Brazilian football had a strong influence on his development, and as a young player he admired the creativity and freedom of Brazilian attackers. Later in his career he even had the opportunity to share the field with Brazilian players.
One of those experiences came during his time at Panevėžio Ekranas, where he played alongside Brazilian midfielder Elivelto. Kochanauskas considers him one of the best foreign players to ever appear in Lithuanian football. Their chemistry on the field made matches and training sessions particularly enjoyable, and the Brazilian influence also shaped Kochanauskas’ appreciation for entertaining attacking football. His admiration extended to Brazil’s national team as well, particularly during the 1998 World Cup, when their attacking style captivated fans around the world.
However, he believes modern football has become much more structured tactically. According to Kochanauskas, attacking players today are often placed into rigid tactical systems that limit their creativity and improvisation. In earlier decades, he says, players had more freedom to express themselves and play for the spectators.
Another important stage of his career came during his time with Trakai. The club had a strong squad that included players such as Jurijus Mamajev, David Arshakian, Artiom Gurenko, Aleksandr Bychenok and Arūnas Klimavičius. Kochanauskas made an immediate impression there, scoring three goals in his first two matches – two in his debut and one in the following game – helping the team win both encounters and later qualify for European competitions.
One of the most memorable and controversial matches of his career came during Trakai’s UEFA Europa League qualifying tie against Estonia’s Nõmme Kalju in 2016. Kochanauskas had only recently returned from a serious injury and was still playing with a metal plate in his leg. Trakai were leading 2-1 when the match suddenly turned chaotic, with several quick goals dramatically changing the outcome of the game.
“We were leading 2-1 and suddenly everything started happening,” he recalls. “Even from the bench we didn’t really understand what was going on.”
The match later became controversial within Lithuanian football circles because suspicions of match manipulation were widely discussed afterwards.
Earlier in his career Kochanauskas had also been part of the FC Vilnius development system, playing for Ukmergė Vilkmergė in a project created by football figure Algimantas Breikštas. The system was designed to gather promising young players into one football pyramid, while the main team featured many Brazilian players. Among the brightest prospects connected to that environment were Rodney and Paulinho.
Kochanauskas also remembers several Lithuanian players whose careers never developed as expected despite enormous potential. One of them was Marius Papšys, who was once regarded as one of the most promising players of his generation and was even reportedly linked with a move to Newcastle United. Another was Aurimas Vilkaitis, who joined Lazio in Rome but later had to end his career due to knee problems. Kochanauskas also recalls Dovydas Norvilas, who struggled to regain his form after a severe flu outbreak during his time at Atlantas Klaipėda.
Stories like these, he says, are common in football. Talent alone is rarely enough – careers are shaped by injuries, mentality, discipline and sometimes simple luck. And that is exactly why, in his current role as a youth coach, Kochanauskas believes character remains the most important quality a young footballer can develop.
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