Mauricio Pochettino, the former manager of Tottenham and Chelsea, was appointed on Tuesday to replace Gregg Berhalter as the U.S. men’s national team coach, with just 21 months to go before the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States.
The 52-year-old Argentine is the 10th coach for the U.S. in the past 14 years and the first foreign-born coach since Jurgen Klinsmann, who was in charge from 2011 to 2016. Pochettino has previously managed Espanyol in Spain (2009-12), Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19), Chelsea (2023-24), and Paris Saint-Germain in France (2021-22), where he won a Ligue 1 title before leaving.
“It’s about the journey that this team and this country are on,” Pochettino said in a statement from the USSF. “The energy, the passion, and the hunger to achieve something truly historic here — those are the things that inspired me.”
Pochettino had a lengthy initial meeting with USSF CEO JT Batson and sporting director Matt Crocker in Barcelona that lasted five hours. The negotiations had been ongoing since mid-August. Crocker had worked with Pochettino before when he was Southampton’s academy director.
While the exact length of the contract wasn’t mentioned, the USSF confirmed that Pochettino will be the coach for the World Cup.
“Mauricio is a serial winner with a deep passion for player development and a proven ability to build cohesive and competitive teams,” Crocker said. “I am confident that he is the right choice to harness the immense potential within our talented squad.”
Pochettino is expected to arrive in the U.S. on Wednesday, ahead of a news conference in New York. He will start his role with friendlies against Panama on October 12 in Austin, Texas, and Mexico three days later. He will then lead the team in his first competitive matches during a two-leg CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal in November.
Former U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller, now an ESPN analyst, found it somewhat amusing that there was talk about getting a coach who would win everything. “It’s not like Pochettino has the track record of someone like Jose Mourinho,” Keller said. “But he’s clearly had success, especially with teams like Southampton and Tottenham, which didn’t have huge budgets to buy top players.”
Keller noted that Pochettino knows how to make the most of a team with certain limitations. “We have to recognize that we’re not yet at the level of France, Brazil, Germany, or Argentina.”
Pochettino is arriving with high hopes from both the USSF management and fans, who believe the current player pool has the potential to achieve more than its current No. 16 world ranking.
Berhalter was dismissed on July 10, a week after the U.S. was knocked out in the first round of the Copa America. He was initially hired in December 2018, let go after the 2022 World Cup, and then rehired in June 2023 to return in September.
Pochettino’s salary has not been disclosed. The USSF mentioned that his hiring was supported by Kenneth C. Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, and his philanthropic organization Griffin Catalyst, as well as Scott Goodwin, managing partner of Diameter Capital Partners, and USSF commercial partners.
Mikey Varas, a former assistant to Berhalter, took charge of the team for two friendlies: a 2-1 loss to Canada and a 1-1 draw against New Zealand.
At the World Cup, the U.S. will be a seeded team as a co-host, which means it is unlikely to face any of the top nine ranked nations in its first-round group. If the U.S. wins its group, it probably won’t encounter a top-level team in the new round of 32. The U.S. has not reached the quarterfinals since 2002.
