The United States men’s national soccer team is getting closer and closer to its man.
Mauricio Pochettino, the former head coach of Tottenham and Chelsea, is the USMNT’s leading candidate to fill the vacant coaching position, according to multiple reports.
There are reportedly a few candidates still in the running, but as The Athletic noted, Pochettino has stood out from the crowd, with US Soccer having held talks with his camp.
Although Pochettino never coached a national team, he was very successful at club level in some of the biggest leagues.
In 2013, he led Southampton to an eighth-place finish before leading Tottenham to three top-three finishes between 2014 and 2019.
While Pochettino was at the helm of Southampton, his tenure overlapped with Matt Crocker, the US Soccer Federation’s sporting director, who ran the club’s academy before leaving to join the Football Association in November 2013 (according to The Athletic).
One of the highlights of Pochettino’s CV came in 2019, when he led his team to the Champions League final.
REUTERS
He coached Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 on their way to the Ligue 1 title.
Before leaving the club at the end of the 2023–24 season, he helped Chelsea to sixth place in the Premier League.
Pochettino, 52, is likely to seek a hefty salary, with multiple reports suggesting he was one of the highest-paid coaches in the world during his time at PSG and Chelsea – earning over a million dollars a year at Chelsea, according to Paywizard.
“As far as salaries go, it’s a really competitive market and we have to be competitive to get a coach at that level who I believe can move the program forward to get the results we want on the field,” Crocker said of any financial constraints, according to a report from The Athletic.
“This is a priority. We are ready to invest in it and we will invest in it.”
Currently, the association intends to appoint Mikey Varas, coach of the United States U20 national team, as coach of the senior national team for the next two friendlies on September 7 and 10, which will involve matches against Canada and New Zealand.
The squad is leaderless after coach Gregg Berhalter was sacked in July following an early exit in the group stage of the 2024 Copa América.
If Pochettino fills that void, he would be the most successful coach the USMNT has seen since Jürgen Klinsmann, who coached the German national team and Bayern Munich.
