Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to become the new United States men’s national team coach with the responsibility of leading the team into the 2026 World Cup, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
Pochettino, who previously managed Southampton, Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain, has never been in charge of a national team side. The former Chelsea boss has been appointed as the next USMNT coach and will take them to the 2026 FIFA World Cup which will be held in USA, Canada and Mexico.
A source told ESPN that the former  Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain coach agreed to succeed Gregg Berhalter as USMNT head coach following lengthy discussions with Matt Crocker, the USSF technical director.
The Argentine manager coached Chelsea for a season and led them to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League before the club board decided to discontinue him and parted ways with him on mutual consent.
Although an agreement has been reached in principle, no final contract has been signed, and the USSF board of directors has yet to formally approve the deal. The board’s regular meeting is scheduled for August 23, though a special meeting could be convened earlier to finalize the appointment. No special meeting has yet been scheduled.
Pochettino, who is 52 years old, has been without a managerial role since mutually parting ways with Chelsea earlier this summer after just one season at Stamford Bridge, where he guided the team to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League. His appointment to the USMNT position follows an unsuccessful attempt by the USSF to recruit Jürgen Klopp, who had recently left Liverpool. The USSF’s decision to pursue Pochettino is seen as a significant achievement, given his extensive experience at the highest levels of club football.
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He is famed for developing young talent and for a few years the USMNT has had plenty of that. So that is the main reason for hiring him, and U.S. Soccer Technical Director Matt Crocker knows this first hand as he worked with Pochettino at Southampton in 2013
Crocker, who previously worked with Premier League team Southampton and the English Football Association, had been charged with recruiting a world-class coach to ensure the USMNT goes into the 2026 World Cup — the U.S. are joint hosts with Canada and Mexico — as a competitive nation, capable of running into the latter stages of the competition.
Pochettino had also been considered as a potential successor to Gareth Southgate as the England manager, but the Three Lions ultimately appointed Lee Carsley as a temporary replacement. Pochettino’s extensive coaching background, which includes guiding Tottenham Hotspur to their first-ever Champions League final in 2019 and winning a Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain, is expected to bring a wealth of experience to the USMNT as they prepare to host the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico.
This appointment marks Pochettino’s first venture into international management. His predecessor, Gregg Berhalter, was dismissed following a disappointing Copa América exit in July. As the new head coach, Pochettino will be responsible for transforming the USMNT into a competitive force capable of advancing to the later stages of the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
