Mauricio Pochettino has reportedly been offered the chance to lead the USMNT into the 2030 World Cup after his team’s impressive start to the tournament on home soil.
According to The Athletic, the United States Soccer Federation has offered the 54-year-old Argentine a contract extension that would see him manage the team at the next edition of the tournament, to be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Pochettino’s team has given American fans reason to believe they can compete with the world’s best in recent weeks after winning Group D with relative ease.
They claimed routine victories over Paraguay and Australia to secure their spot in the knockout stage but fell to a 3-2 loss to Turkey in their final group game on Thursday night.
A last-32 showdown with Bosnia and Herzegovina has been penciled in for July 1 in San Francisco.
Any decisions on Pochettino’s future in charge of the U.S. will reportedly be made once the World Cup has concluded, when his current deal is set to expire.
Mauricio Pochettino has been offered the chance to lead the USMNT into the 2030 World Cup
Pochettino’s team has given American fans reason to believe they can compete with the elite
Pochettino, the former Tottenham and Chelsea manager, will have interest from club teams once this World Cup is out of the way.
He is constantly linked with vacancies at Europe’s leading clubs whenever they come up and it was speculated before the World Cup that Pochettino had held talks with Italian giants AC Milan. Former Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim took that job.
But talks with U.S. soccer chiefs have reportedly been going on for months and the offer was put to Pochettino before the World Cup started. They are said to be very keen to keep him in charge.
Not only will Pochettino have the World Cup to look forward to but in the next four years he could also preside over the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and the Copa America, which is due to be hosted in the USA.
For now his attention will remain on the World Cup and, on Thursday night, he bristled at suggestions that the Americans’ last-gasp, 3-2 defeat by Turkey said anything negative about the state of his team.
‘For you not say congratulations that we won the group, that is a little bit sad,’ Pochettino told reporters.
‘What we need to remember is we won first place in this group,’ he added while speaking in Spanish and English.
‘We ended up being No. 1, and we managed all the pressure and the expectations quite well. We had other priorities. We wanted to win. We did want the victory, but there are other things we needed to balance out, and that’s how I made the decisions.
‘Making history is winning the World Cup, not just winning the group. It’s a little bit petty, if you will. You’re thinking just a little bit too small.’
