With top club posts filled will Pochettino extend USMNT contract?

United States v Ecuador - International Friendly

Mauricio Pochettino has seen prominent coaching posts filled by leading clubs in Europe, so could he stay on as USMNT boss beyond the end of a home World Cup cycle in 2026? Brad Friedel has explained to GOAL how the Argentine - with spells at Tottenham, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain on his CV - can help American soccer to grow and rival established brands in American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey.

Prominent Premier League & La Liga posts being filled

As things stand, Pochettino will see his deal with U.S. Soccer expire when a major tournament in North America comes to a close this summer. Hopes are high when it comes to a so-called ‘Golden Generation’ of talent, with the likes of Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie ready to excite and entertain a global audience.

Eyes from every corner of the plant will be descending on the United States, Canada and Mexico between June 11 and July 19, with some of the biggest and most recognisable names in sport ready to strut their stuff on the grandest of stages.

Pochettino will be helping to shoulder the expectations of co-hosts, but will he walk away once that quest is completed? At one stage, the 54-year-old was being heavily linked with top teams in the Premier League, La Liga and beyond.

The likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham have all filled managerial vacancies, while Manchester City are expected to ask Enzo Maresca to follow in the footsteps of Pep Guardiola. Over in Spain, Jose Mourinho is seemingly heading back to Real Madrid while Hansi Flick continues to impress at Barcelona. AC Milan are reported to be keen, but others - such as Andoni Iraola - remain in the running to fill said role in Serie A.

United States v Portugal - International Friendly

Could Pochettino stay on as USMNT boss?

With that in mind, will Pochettino be reassessing his options - with an extended stay in charge of the USMNT now on the cards? When that question was put to Friedel, the former United States international goalkeeper - speaking in association with MrQ - told GOAL: “I think he’ll have offers anywhere in the world. He’s a tremendous manager. It really depends on what he wants to do and probably how successful the team is.

“One interesting anecdote to this is that Matt Crocker, who was the sporting director at U.S. Soccer, basically built this four-year cycle, then left for Saudi, another nation in the World Cup, but for the World Cup.

“So I read that as two ways: like they’re all leaving at the end, or that maybe they’ll give more now that Mauricio has been on the ground for two-and-a-half years or whatever it is and he’s started to understand the landscape of the culture of football around maybe a joint sporting director/head coaching role after and really help the U.S.

“Personally, I would love it if he stayed on. Because the culture in the United States is the thing that’s lacking, but it’s the hardest thing to overcome.”

The biggest challenge faced by U.S. soccer

Friedel added on the challenges that U.S. soccer faces when seeing international and MLS action compete with the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB: “Our stadiums are fantastic, training grounds are fantastic, coaching education is better, coaches are better. You know, the sport is growing amongst the amateur levels at a huge pace, all that stuff. But it’s still not the main sport in the U.S. And until it’s the main sport in the U.S. we will never have a golden generation because we’re never going to get all the top athletes and, even more than athletes, the people that just want to die for the sport. Until we have that, we just have to keep trying to build the sport as much as we can.

“The argument people bring to me all the time, and even my friends that are pundits in the game that I played with, they’re all saying: ‘Yeah, but we should be much better with 350 million people’. I say to them: ‘No, if it were population-based, then India would be killing it. China would be killing it. Pakistan would be killing it’.

There’s only one, out of the top 10 most populous countries in the world, there’s only one footballing nation in there, and that’s Brazil. And one of the reasons why they’re the best is because they are a footballing nation, and they have 215 million people or whatever it is who are all crazy for football. If the US were a footballing nation, a cultural footballing nation that had 350 million people, yes, we would be very dominant in tournaments. But we’re not.”

Christian Pulisic, USMNT

USMNT fixtures: Friendlies & World Cup group stage

The USMNT have pre-World Cup friendly fixtures against Senegal and Germany fast approaching. Pochettino has named his squad for major tournament action, with 26 stars getting the nod, and will want to give as many of those players as possible game time before the competitive action gets underway.

The first of those fixtures comes against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in California on June 12, before then tackling Australia in Seattle on June 19. A testing Group D schedule will be completed on June 25 when returning to Inglewood for a meeting with Turkiye.