Mauricio Pochettino's hiring by the US men's soccer team is finally official

The U.S. men’s soccer team’s hiring of renowned manager Mauricio Pochettino finally became official on Tuesday, nearly a month after reports first emerged that he had agreed to take the job.

Pochettino will lead the team through the 2026 FIFA World Cup on home soil and will try to get the best out of Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Tim Weah and other young players who seem to have much talent but have underwhelmed on the field. That includes at the Copa América, where their flop led to the firing of previous manager Gregg Berhalter.

The first games with Pochettino in charge will be next month: an Oct. 12 home game against Panama in Austin, Texas, and an Oct. 15 visit to perennial rival Mexico in Guadalajara.

“The decision to join U.S. Soccer wasn’t just about football for me; it’s about the journey that this team and this country are on,” Pochettino said in a statement. “The energy, the passion, and the hunger to achieve something truly historic here — those are the things that inspired me. … I see a group of players full of talent and potential, and together, we’re going to build something special that the whole nation can be proud of.”

What took so long to get the deal done? The 52-year-old Argentine was owed money by the last team he worked for, England’s Chelsea, which parted ways with him in May. And while it wasn’t officially called a firing, it looked like one from afar. Pochettino couldn’t sign a contract with another team until that was cleared up.

The U.S. Soccer Federation understandably didn’t want to pay off a big sum for a situation it had nothing to do with, and Chelsea seemingly didn’t want to budge over money it owed. No one expected the negotiations to take this long, but now they’re finally done.

Pochettino comes to the U.S. after 15 years managing clubs in Europe: Spain’s Espanyol (2009-12), England’s Southampton (2013-14) and Tottenham Hotspur (2014-19), France’s Paris Saint-Germain (2021-22), then Chelsea (2023-24). His players at Tottenham included current U.S. centerback Cameron Carter-Vickers, and former right back DeAndre Yedlin and goalkeeper Brad Friedel. (And while at Chelsea, he got to know current U.S. women’s manager Emma Hayes, who led the Blues’ women’s team from 2012-24)

Before then, his 17-year playing career went from Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys (1989-94) to Espanyol (1994-2001 and 2004-06), Paris Saint-Germain (2001-03), and France’s Bordeaux (2003-04). He also played 20 games for Argentina’s national team, including at the 2002 World Cup — and a 1999 exhibition against a United States team that coincidentally included Berhalter.

Pochettino’s coaching achievements include taking Southampton, usually a low-to-mid-level Premier League team, to a team-record eighth-place finish in 2014; and Tottenham to four straight UEFA Champions League berths, including the team’s first final appearance in 2019. He also won the French Ligue 1 title during his one season in Paris — though that was easier because PSG perennially dominates the league.

At Southampton, Pochettino briefly overlapped with current U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker, who ran the club’s youth academy at the time. That connection seems to have paid off a decade later.

“Mauricio is a serial winner with a deep passion for player development and a proven ability to build cohesive and competitive teams,” Crocker said. “His track record speaks for itself, and I am confident that he is the right choice to harness the immense potential within our talented squad. We are thrilled to have Mauricio on board as we embark on this exciting journey to achieve success on the global stage.”

If Pochettino’s resume doesn’t seem like much in terms of trophies, it’s important to understand that Tottenham, PSG and Chelsea are among the craziest clubs in the soccer world to manage. Spurs and PSG have long histories of underachievement on big stages, and all three clubs have long had volatile front offices — with Chelsea throwing in meddling ownership on top.

There’s a lot of money at all three teams, and always big-name players. But the volatility Pochettino had to endure made it difficult to just get on with coaching. He nonetheless has won a lot more games than he’s lost over the years, which left his elite reputation intact.

The U.S. men have had many foreign managers in their history — perhaps more than some fans realize, since many of those bosses were around before the team’s “modern” era started at the 1990 World Cup. Jürgen Klinsmann (2011-16) and Bora Milutinović (1991-95) are the most famous names on the list.

But Pochettino is the first U.S. manager to come from South America, and that barrier has probably taken too long to break given how many great coaches the continent has produced, especially in Argentina.

It also matters because U.S. Soccer historically hasn’t marketed nearly enough to the country’s huge Latino population — or recruited from it, until relatively recently. Though Pochettino will probably only have the U.S. job for two years, that could be another big piece of his legacy if it goes well.