The home team in the 2026 World Cup is hiring a coach from abroad.
Multiple media reports say U.S. Soccer has succeeded in luring Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentine who has been successful at the top levels of European club soccer, to lead the U.S. Men’s National Team into the next World Cup, which will be held in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
U.S. Soccer declined to comment.
Pochettino was one of the biggest names on the coaching market this summer after leaving the Chelsea job by mutual consent with the club. He was lauded for Chelsea’s turnaround in the second half of the 2023-24 English Premier League season, in which the Blues finished sixth, giving fans hope in the wake of a disappointing two years since the club’s purchase by a consortium led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly in 2022.
The new coach steps into a similarly glum situation, as the U.S. men crashed out of the first round in this summer’s Copa America on home soil. The dismal performance by a talented group of American players led to the firing of Gregg Berhalter, who coached the team into the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The 52-year-old Pochettino played for Argentina’s national team in the 2002 World Cup. Prior to Chelsea, he coached in the Premier League at Southampton, leading the club to its best-ever finish in 2014, and at Tottenham Hotspur from 2014 to 2019, guiding Spurs to a runner-up finish in both the EPL and the UEFA Champions League. He later won France’s Ligue 1 at Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite his resume, Pochettino reportedly wasn’t U.S. Soccer’s top target. The U.S. was interested in Jurgen Klopp, who stepped down as Liverpool’s head man after a wildly successful nine seasons at the EPL powerhouse. But Klopp exited Liverpool saying he had no desire to coach anywhere, and has thus far kept his word.
Berhalter made $2.3 million during the 2022 calendar year, according to U.S. Soccer tax filings. It’s likely Pochettino will be paid considerably more.
This won’t be the first time an international coach will head the men’s national team. Germany’s Jurgen Klinsmann had the reins from 2011 through 2016, and Serbia’s Bora Milutinovic helmed the squad the last time the World Cup was played in the U.S. in 1994.
(This article has been updated with U.S. Soccer declining to comment.)
