Headline: Pep Guardiola Emerges as Front-Runner for USA Head Coach Position
Pep Guardiola has become a “top target” to assume the role of head coach for the USA national team, following Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to leave the position to take up the managerial role at Manchester United.
On Thursday morning, Michael Carrick was finally sacked by United. As The Independent reported days earlier, Pochettino is being considered for a return to club football at Old Trafford.
Negotiations for the deal are currently in progress, with an official announcement anticipated soon. However, the exact timing of Pochettino’s exit from his position with the USMNT remains uncertain, as the team is set to face Haiti in two crucial Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals on Saturday and Tuesday.
Whether Pochettino stays to manage these matches or not, the US Soccer Federation will need to start searching for a new head coach. According to reports from The Athletic, Guardiola, the former manager of Manchester City, has emerged as a preferred candidate.
Guardiola departed from Manchester City this summer after ten successful years, during which the legitimacy of some of his achievements has been questioned due to the club’s violations of Premier League financial rules. He has not yet returned to management, but US Soccer has discussed his candidacy internally.
Successfully appointing Guardiola would be challenging, as he is regarded as one of the top available coaches globally and appears in no hurry to re-enter management following his time at City.
Recently, Guardiola declined an opportunity to manage the Italy national team, with Italian football federation president Giovanni Malago recalling that Guardiola expressed a desire to take a sabbatical for family reasons. Instead, Roberto Mancini returned to manage the Azzurri.
Guardiola has shown interest in the potential of working in the United States and enjoyed his time exploring New York during a sabbatical after leaving Barcelona in 2012. He has had prior discussions with US Soccer about the possibility and expressed good wishes to Pochettino upon his appointment in 2024.
In a previous press conference, he mentioned, “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.”
After the upcoming matches against Haiti, the US national team will not have another competitive game until March, aside from a training camp for domestic players in December, allowing ample time for a thorough search for a new head coach and giving Guardiola the option for more time away from football if desired.
