The U.S. Soccer Association finally announced Tuesday that it has hired Mauricio Pochettino as head coach of the men’s national team.
Pochettino, a former Argentine player who most recently managed English Premier League side Chelsea, was reported to have agreed a few weeks ago to manage the United States national team through to the 2026 World Cup, but the deal could not be finalized until the details of his departure from Chelsea last May were finalized.
Once those issues are resolved, he will be officially introduced as the team’s new coach at a press conference in New York on Friday morning and will lead the U.S. for the first time in next month’s friendlies against Panama in Austin, Texas, and Mexico in Guadalajara. Mikey Barras, who previously managed the U.S. U-20 team, led the senior national team in matches against Canada and New Zealand this month.
“My decision to join U.S. Soccer wasn’t just about soccer for me,” Pochettino said in a statement. “It was about the path this team and this country are on. The energy, passion and hunger to accomplish something truly historic for this country is what inspired me.”
“I see a group of players full of talent and potential, and together we will build something special that the whole country can be proud of.”
Financial terms of the deal were not made public, but a U.S. Soccer spokesman confirmed it is a multiyear agreement that runs through the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The U.S. will play two of its three group stage matches at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
The 52-year-old Pochettino has led Tottenham to the Champions League final and won the Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain but has never coached the national team. He will be tasked with rebuilding the U.S. national team after a disappointing performance at the Copa America in the summer of 2010, when it was eliminated in the group stage. It will be the first time the U.S. has been eliminated in the first round of an international tournament on home soil.
The U.S. men’s national team entered Tuesday night’s game against New Zealand having lost three straight games in the same year for the first time since 2007. U.S. Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone said Tuesday she was confident Pochettino could turn things around.
“Mauricio is a world-class coach with a proven track record of developing players and achieving success at the highest level,” said Cone, a former World Cup winner as a player. “His passion for the game, innovative approach to coaching and ability to inspire and connect with players make him a perfect fit for this role.”
Under Berhalter, who was fired in July, the Americans were criticized for playing a conservative, risk-averse style, but Pochettino is known for his high-pressing, attacking style of play, which encourages his teams to press opponents and has delivered results in three of Europe’s top five leagues.
Centre-back Pochettino first signed with Newell’s Old Boys at the age of 17 and went on to make almost 500 appearances for Argentina, Spain and France, as well as 20 appearances for the Argentina national team before retiring as a player in 2006 and starting his coaching career with Spanish club Espanyol three years later.
He subsequently managed Southampton, Tottenham and PSG before moving to Chelsea, signing a two-year contract ahead of the 2023-24 season. But he was sacked two days after Chelsea finished sixth, leaving the manager and the club, whose chairman is Dodgers co-owner Todd Boley, to finalise the terms of Pochettino’s parting with Chelsea, whose salary is reportedly $13.2 million a year.
U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson is said to have helped negotiate the deal between the two sides and helped negotiate Pochettino’s contract, reportedly the largest in the organization’s history. Berhalter will earn $2,291,136 in 2022, including a $900,000 bonus.
“Mauricio’s hiring is a step forward in our mission to compete at the highest level and leave a lasting mark on global soccer,” Batson said. “Mauricio understands the unique potential of this team and this country and shares our belief that U.S. Soccer is at the beginning of something truly special.”
Matt Crocker, the U.S. Soccer Federation sporting director who led the search for a replacement after Berhalter was fired in early July, briefly overlapped with Pochettino at Southampton, where he was academy director.
Pochettino is one of the highest-profile figures to ever lead a national team and is only the second foreign-born manager to do so, after Boris Milutinov in the United States in 1995.
“Mauricio is a serial winner with a deep passion for player development and a proven ability to build cohesive, competitive teams,” Crocker said of the coach, who is fluent in English, Spanish and French. “His track record speaks for itself.”
Berhalter, a former U.S. Soccer and Galaxy coach under Bruce Arena, was hired in December 2018, 14 months after the U.S. missed out on the World Cup for the first time in 32 years under Arena. He led the team to a Gold Cup victory, two CONCACAF Nations League titles and a trip to the round of 16 at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. With a record of 44 wins, 17 losses and 13 draws, he left with the best winning percentage of any coach with seven or more games in charge of the national team.
But his hopes were dashed by the team’s lack of ability, and the U.S. was eliminated in the group stage after losing to Panama and Uruguay.
“After the Copa America, there was a feeling of disappointment in the locker room,” the forward told ESPN last week, “but we knew we had to put it behind us, we had to go away, reflect and come back to this camp.”
Only Arena (81) and Jurgen Klinsmann (55) have more wins with the U.S. national team. Berhalter previously survived being forced out of his job after former teammate John F. Kennedy, outraged by Berhalter’s treatment of his son Gio during the 2022 World Cup, reported an alleged physical altercation 30 years ago between Berhalter and the woman who would become his wife to the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The federation launched a months-long investigation into the incident before Crocker rehired him 13 months ago for the current World Cup season.
The U.S. Soccer Federation decided to offer Berhalter a new contract based on his performance and his good relationship with most of the players, but his second stint with the team lasted less than a year.
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