The USA will make Pep Guardiola their top target if, as expected, Mauricio Pochettino leaves his role as head coach to join Manchester United. The Argentine is set to take over from Michael Carrick, with the Premier League club having already agreed to buy him out of his contract with US Soccer.
Guardiola already discussed internally
Those in the States have been drawing up a list of candidates to replace Pochettino, and Guardiola, who left Manchester City in the summer, is their ideal candidate. Reports from The Athletic indicate that Guardiola has already been discussed internally by US Soccer.
The Catalan has already turned down the opportunity of a swift return to management, with Italy showing interest in him only to be rejected by the former City boss. Italian chief Giovanni Malago told La Repubblica: “Pep was honest. He took a sabbatical, partly for family reasons, but if he’d done anything, he would have done it with us.”
Guardiola's history with US Soccer
Guardiola has had dialogue with US Soccer in the past and has history in America. He lived in New York City during a year-long sabbatical after leaving Barcelona in 2012, staying in a luxury apartment close to Central Park with his family.
Guardiola has previously said: “The USA is fascinating to try to build a project for many years and being able to get the national team to the next step. The potential with the USA is there for the amount of people and sports and so on.”
US Soccer contacted Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp at the beginning of the federation’s last managerial search, which ended with the hiring of Pochettino in 2024.
Pochettino's return to the Premier League
The Argentine is now poised for a return to the Premier League, where he has previously coached Tottenham and then Chelsea. In north London he saw his stock rise and was first linked with a move to Manchester, but he was overlooked for the role in 2018 as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got the job.
Since then he has won the first honours of his managerial career, doing so at PSG. He led the USA in their home World Cup in the summer, but they were knocked out by Belgium in the Round of 16.
Pochettino is set to oversee the USA's two upcoming games, both against Haiti, which would delay his move to Old Trafford, where he is due to replace Michael Carrick.
