USMNT in talks with Mauricio Pochettino as top coaching target emerges

The United States men’s national soccer team is closing in on its guy.

Mauricio Pochettino, the former head coach of Tottenham and Chelsea, emerged as the USMNT’s top target to fill their coaching position vacancy, according to multiple reports.

Reportedly, there are still a handful of candidates in contention; however, Pochettino has risen above the others, as U.S. Soccer has had conversations with his camp, as noted by The Athletic.

Despite never managing a national team, Pochettino has had extensive success at the club level in some of the biggest leagues.

Looking back to 2013, he led Southampton to an eighth-place finish before guiding Tottenham to three top-three finishes between 2014-19.

While Pochettino was at the helm of Southampton, he overlapped with Matt Crocker, the U.S. Soccer sporting director, who led their academy before leaving in November 2013 to join the Football Association, per The Athletic.

One of the highlights on Pochettino’s résumé is from 2019 when he led his squad to a Champions League final appearance.

He coached Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 on its way to a Ligue 1 title.

Before departing at the end of the 2023-24 season he helped Chelsea notch the No. 6 spot in the Premier League. 

Pochettino, 52, will likely seek a commanding salary as multiple reports indicate he was one of the highest-paid coaches in the world during his stints with PSG and Chelsea — per Paywizard, he made north of $1 million annually at Chelsea.

“It’s a really competitive market out there, salary-wise, and we have to be competitive to get the level of coach that I believe can take the program forward in terms of achieving the results that we want on the field,” Crocker said, regarding any financial restrictions, as reported by The Athletic. 

“It’s a priority. It’s something we’re prepared to invest in and something that we will be investing in.”

As it stands, the federation intends to have Mikey Varas, the coach of the U.S. Under-20 men’s national team, coach the senior team in its next two friendlies on Sept. 7 and 10, which will be matches against Canada and New Zealand.

The squad has been left rudderless following coach Gregg Berhalter’s firing in July after an early group-stage exit in the 2024 Copa América.

If Pochettino fills that void, it would mark the most prolific coach the USMNT has seen since Jurgen Klinsmann, who had coached Germany and Bayern Munich.