He’s coached soccer greats Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé — and now Mauricio Pochettino will be taking the helm of the U.S. Men’s National Team, ending the high-profile search for the person to lead the team into the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
The much-anticipated announcement came Tuesday through a post on the team’s X account.
Pochettino represents a high-profile appointment for a squad seemingly ready to be led by a coach with experience at the top of the European game.
The Argentine brings a reputation for developing young players that should mesh with a roster boasting a number of promising talents.
The 52-year-old joins the U.S. after stints with the likes of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur in England, and Paris Saint-Germain in France. With Emma Hayes leading the women’s team, it gives U.S. soccer a pair of high-profile coaches with weighty reputations in the club game.
The men’s national team is coming off a stinging and humbling experience at this summer’s Copa America, which was also played in the U.S. Despite being in a group that, on paper, it should’ve been able to get out of, the U.S. ultimately came up way short, producing a dismal group stage exit.
To some, that represented regression; to others, it was simply confirmation of the fact that despite its crop of young talents and success in its own confederation, the team was simply not yet good enough for prime-time.
Coach Gregg Berhalter was fired in the aftermath of the Copa America disaster. He previously led the team to two CONCACAF Nations League titles, as well as a 2021 Gold Cup before being knocked out of the 2022 World Cup in the round of 16 following a 3-1 loss to the Netherlands.
Now comes the Pochettino era, one that fans hope will be more fruitful as the U.S. gears up for the 2026 World Cup, which it will host along with Mexico and Canada.
The Argentine has not coached at the national team level, but he has managed some of the top clubs in the world and has history with USMNT Sporting Director Matt Crocker, who was the director of football operations at Southampton when Pochettino managed the English club.
After his time at Southampton, Pochettino headed to London in 2014, where he oversaw the most successful Tottenham side of the modern era.
With Pochettino at the helm, Tottenham finished fifth, third, second, third and fourth in the Premier League, all the while playing a fast-paced brand of soccer that allowed talented youngsters like Harry Kane to thrive and drew admirers among the sport’s new crop of stateside fans.
The Argentine also returned Spurs to the Champions League, famously leading the club’s magical run to the final in 2019, which it ultimately lost to Liverpool. He ultimately left with the team languishing in the table as doubts grew over his relationship with the club hierarchy and leading players.
His exploits at Spurs, however, caught the eye of Paris Saint-Germain, the French giants who’d dominated their domestic league but were still desperately looking to add the Champions League trophy to their crown.
With the triumvirate of Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi leading the front line, it was hoped Pochettino would be the man to lead PSG to Champions League glory. Instead, he suffered the same fate as others before him and fell short of the trophy coveted by European giants.
Domestically, the team also finished 2nd in Pochettino’s first season, a mini crisis for a side which by that point had grown accustomed to winning the title every season. Pochettino did win the league the next season, adding to his French Super Cup and Coupe de France trophies, but that was ultimately not enough to save his job.
After his stint in the French top flight, Pochettino returned to the Premier League in 2023, yet again landing in London, though now helming Chelsea.
This time, Pochettino was tasked with stabilizing and returning to former glory an unsteady side that had fired a succession of bosses under new American owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
Chelsea ultimately finished 6th in a season marked by up-and-down performances and persistent questions around Pochettino’s future, as well as the effectiveness of his methods in the current club game. The Argentine departed the club by mutual consent in May of this year.
Pochettino and the U.S. Men’s National Team now find each other at perhaps a perfect — or imperfect — time. Both are at a crossroads, damaged by years of demonstrating undoubted potential but coming up short when it mattered most.
The U.S. is still trying to make good on what many fans have called its “golden generation.”
Yes, for the first time it has a crop of young players like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tim Weah and Folarin Balogun getting significant minutes at top European clubs. Yet, it’s also a team that has time and time again failed to measure up when playing the world’s best, at times even struggling against some less talented but more dogged CONCACAF sides.
And while Pulisic, McKennie, Weah and Balogun undoubtedly represent some of the USMNT’s best, this is not a stacked team by any stretch of the imagination. The Copa America laid bare some glaring deficiencies, including at center-back, full-back and even goalkeeper, long a position of strength for the national team.
Pochettino will not be expected to work miracles and win the next World Cup. But he will be charged with revamping a side that’s languishing and in desperate need of a jolt.
At a minimum, the expectation will be to get out of the group come 2026. Even a round of 16 appearance after that will only match what was seen as a failure when the team crashed out at that stage in 2022.
So, does the team have what it takes to make it to the quarterfinals —and perhaps even the semifinals — in the home World Cup?
Pochettino and the U.S. will be hoping so. Both their reputations will be desperately counting on it.
The post U.S. men’s national soccer team names Mauricio Pochettino next coach appeared first on NBC News.
