The paper discusses the pedagogical competence of (football) coaches, its importance and contribution to the overall development of young people. As research that studies the significance and value of the overall development of players through sports has only intensified in the last few decades, their upbringing is still mostly seen as something incidental and not intentional. For this reason, it often remains a neglected component in the education of football coaches, and consequently in the lives of child athletes. A pedagogically competent coach should possess knowledge from various areas of his pedagogical activities in order to optimally influence the overall development of his players through his educational role. With the aim of researching the pedagogical competencies of football coaches and their educational role in the development of young athletes, a study was conducted on a sample of 274 young football players from the Krapinsko-zagorska County. The research results indicate significant differences in the dimensions of pedagogical competence. As the most successful, the coaches showed themselves in the personal dimension, while they showed a lower level of competence in the didactic, social-emotional and communication dimensions. It was also established that coaches use patterns of behavior that have been shown to have a long-term effect on the overall development of young athletes, thus confirming the importance of their educational role.