Doug McIntyre
Soccer Journalist
Former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain supervisor Mauricio Pochettino is anticipated to be named the subsequent coach of the USA males’s nationwide crew, sources with data of the state of affairs confirmed to FOX Sports activities on Thursday.
A number of media shops in England reported late Wednesday and early Thursday that the Argentine had agreed to take the U.S. job. No contract had been signed as of Thursday morning, and the U.S. Soccer Federation’s board of administrators has not but signed off on any deal, one supply mentioned. However these are thought of formalities at this level.Â
Barring any late snags, Pochettino will exchange Gregg Berhalter as USMNT coach. Berhalter led the People to the second spherical of the 2022 World Cup however was fired on July 10, a little bit greater than every week after the U.S. was eradicated within the group stage of the Copa América on dwelling soil. Pochettino’s camp first met with U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker in Europe the week of July 15, in keeping with a number of sources.Â
Pochettino is taken into account one of many high coaches within the international recreation — and doubtless the most effective obtainable supervisor on the open market after former Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp rebuffed an preliminary method from U.S. Soccer. Touchdown the 52-year-old is a big coup for the us. The affable Pochettino, who’s fluent in each English and Spanish, will instantly develop into the face of the boys’s program upon his arrival.
With the 2026 World Cup co-hosted stateside (and in Canada and Mexico), Crocker had set his sights on recruiting an elite coach to steer the boys’s crew. The Welshman has already completed that on the ladies’s aspect; final weekend, former Chelsea Girls supervisor Emma Hayes received the nation’s fifth Olympic gold medal in simply her tenth recreation on the helm of the USWNT.
Crocker and Pochettino have historical past. They beforehand labored collectively at English membership Southampton when Crocker oversaw the Saints’ youth academy. The latter took humble Southampton to an eighth place end within the Premier League in his lone season in 2023-14 earlier than transferring on to a profitable five-year run at Tottenham Hotspur. Pochettino led Spurs to their highest Prem factors totals ever and a Champions League runner-up medal in 2019.
He then received the French Cup and Ligue 1 in his two seasons at PSG earlier than returning to London final summer season with Chelsea. Pochettino took the Blues from twelfth to sixth in England’s high flight earlier than leaving, to the shock of many, after the 2023-24 marketing campaign.
Pochettino started his teaching profession with Spanish aspect Espanyol in 2009. As a participant, the previous central defender amassed 20 caps for Argentina and took part within the 2002 World Cup. He has just a few ties to American soccer, having coached present USMNT middle again Cameron Carter-Vickers and former U.S. World Cup gamers Brad Friedel and DeAndre Yedlin throughout his time at Tottenham.
Pochettino was one among a number of high-profile coaches that the federation had preliminary conversations with both immediately or by intermediaries. Others embrace Klopp, former England coach Gareth Southgate and Hoffenheim supervisor Pellegrino Matarazzo, the one American head coach working in one among Europe’s high 4 leagues.
Pochettino was one of many highest-paid coaches within the membership recreation at Chelsea and PSG, and can nearly definitely develop into the best-compensated nationwide crew boss on the earth as soon as he formally indicators on with the U.S. Hayes is the highest earner on the ladies’s aspect.
The USMNT’s subsequent match is a Sept. 7 pleasant in opposition to Canada in Kansas Metropolis.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports activities. A former workers author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports activities, he has coated U.S. males’s and ladies’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Observe him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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