When I was in high school, I played Robot Battle, a game in which you scripted behaviors for automated tanks. This gave me immediate reason to use and learn much of what I learned in math at school. The day we were taught basic trigonometry, I was on the edge of my seat, because I knew that what I was learning would be useful several hours later when I got back to coding my robots.
Of course, you can't force an interest on a child, but you can certainly introduce them to new ones.
From time to time I talk children in my family about mathematical subjects I myself find interesting, and I know something about, such as strange stuff about infinite, mathematical logic, or crazy and counter-intuitive mathematical theorems. And they keep interested about it as long as I do. So I think that can be a way.