The United States men’s national soccer team’s (USMNT) search for a head coach is over as multiple reports tab Mauricio Pochettino as the program’s next gaffer.
The search took roughly six weeks following the dismissal of Gregg Berhalter, who failed to navigate the USMNT through the group stage of Copa America on home soil in just the latest disappointment.
Pochettino brings a sterling resume to the position — one that the program has seldom had and one that USA supporters were clamoring for after Berhalter’s departure. Jurgen Klinsmann, who coached the USMNT from 2011 to 2016, is the only comparable hire after the legendary German World Cup winner went on to coach his national team and Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich.
The 52-year-old Argentine has coached some of the largest clubs in the world, including five years with Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League from 2014 to 2019. He led the club to the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final — the first appearance ever in the title match — before losing to Liverpool.
Just five months later and with Tottenham in 14th in the Premier League, he was sacked.
Two years later, he resurfaced in France 2021-2022 with Ligue 1 powerhouses Paris Saint-Germain. He won three trophies in his short spell there: the French Super Cup, the French Cup, and the Ligue 1 title for the 2021-22 season. During that offseason, however, it was announced that PSG and Pochettino would part ways.
Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino (right) and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (right) on the touchline during the UEFA Champions League, Group A match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester. Picture date: Wednesday November 24, 2021.No Use UK. No Use Ireland. No Use Belgium. No Use France. No Use Germany. No Use Japan. No Use China. No Use Norway. No Use Sweden. No Use Denmark. No Use Holland. No Use Australia.
He returned to England with Chelsea for the 2023-24 season but lasted just one season as the latest casualty of the club’s never-ending carousel of managers following a sixth-place Premier League finish and a loss in the Carabao Cup Final to Liverpool.
Pochettino was amongst the US Soccer Federation’s (USSF) top choices, though they reportedly approached former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp about potentially taking on the role, to which he declined.
The USSF pivoted to Pochettino, who has a history with US Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker. The two worked together with English side Southampton in 2013. Pochettino was manager and Crocker was overseeing the club’s academy before leaving to take a job with the English FA.
The veteran gaffer now makes his way to the United States where he will bring a high-intensity, pressing style of play to a roster that is teeming at the brim with young talent — the kind of talent that the USMNT has never had — but was forced to play too passively under Berhalter.
It provides the promise of maximizing the potential that this team has flashed since 2018 with stars like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Sergino Dest, and Gio Reyna — just four of numerous Americans who now play in the top leagues of Europe — entering the primes of their career.
The USMNT made a run to the Round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which was seen as a stepping stone for the program before regressing over the previous two years. Now with the 2026 World Cup coming to the United States, the program has a manager who has experience coaching the world’s best players while providing an emotional component to a locker room that should rebuild the passion that once surrounded the team.
