FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – Mauricio Pochettino officially said goodbye to U.S. Soccer at a press conference held Friday morning at the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center on the eve of his final two games as head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team.
Earlier today, U.S. Soccer announced that the seasoned manager will be departing the Federation to become the head coach at Manchester United in the English Premier League. Pochettino will continue to lead the U.S. through the remainder of the current FIFA window, highlighted by two legs in the Concacaf Nations League Quarterfinals against Haiti on Nov. 14 in Miami, Fla. and on Nov. 17 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Pochettino spent his career coaching at the club level before joining U.S. Soccer in September 2024. Though the move back to top-flight European football is a logical next step for a renowned coach of Pochettino’s caliber, the 54-year-old revealed on Friday that the decision to leave U.S. Soccer was the most difficult of his career.
“I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you so much,” Pochettino said. “From the beginning, and in the last the last two years, you made me feel really happy doing my job, sharing an amazing project, being part of this family.”
The heartfelt moment was shared with U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone and President and CEO and Secretary General JT Batson, who were part of his announcement two years ago. Today, the two flanked Pochettino on either side and supported him when he got emotional and wiped away tears.
“What you've done with the men's and the boys’ program in two years has been unbelievable,” Cone said. “Not only have you contributed to their advancement, you've contributed to the entire Federation being better, and you have been such a great partner to all of us. I just want to give you a heartfelt thank you. We're going to miss you.”
“We have a team with great momentum, and you and the staff deserve a ton of credit for that,” Batson echoed. “Mauricio and his staff have raised the standard at U.S. Soccer every day they've been here. We have clearer connections now between our youth national teams and our senior team. The culture that Mauricio helped set within our team and even more broadly within the Federation is something that will last for many, many, many years to come.”
The search for a new head coach will formally begin at the end of the current international window, according to Batson, and will be led by a group of U.S. Soccer that includes Chief Operating Officer Dan Helfrich, Assistant Sporting Director Oguchi Onyewu, and USWNT head coach Emma Hayes along with Cone and Batson.
“Our ambition is high, and we believe that this is one of the great coaching jobs in the world,” Batson said. “We have an experienced group of players. We have a dynamic, young pool of players…. We've publicly shared our ambition is to be in a position where we're winning major tournaments, including World Cups, and we want to make sure that we're attracting leaders who help us do just that. We know from our experience that great leaders want to work with great people, and great leaders want to make an impact on things that matter. And we think that we've proven that at U.S. Soccer that we are a great place to work, and we're a great place to make legacy-defining impact.”
After November, the men’s program will host just one more camp in December to close out the calendar year. Steve Cherundolo, the U-23 MNT head coach, will oversee that MLS-based camp which features a match against Concacaf rival Jamaica on Dec. 13 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Pochettino leaves the next USMNT head coach with a strong foundation to build on. Coming off a historic run at FIFA World Cup 2026 on home soil, the team completed a four-match sweep in the fall that helped draw record number crowds and viewership and included a pair of victories over Concacaf rivals and fellow World Cup Round of 16 participants Mexico and Canada.
In that September-October window, Pochettino also debuted 13 new players, 12 of which developed in the MLS Player Pathway, showing progress in player development on home soil as U.S. Soccer kicks off the 2030 FIFA World Cup cycle.
“We have great veteran leadership with a mix of young players that are up and coming, as we've seen through the last window, and then hopefully they'll show it during this window as well,” Cone said. “We have a great foundation and lots to build upon, and I am energized about our future.”
As Pochettino’s time with the U.S. Men’s National Team draws to a close over the next five days, he leaves the program in a good place. Though it’s a bittersweet goodbye for the manager, one that he admitted is very sad for him, U.S. Soccer is poised for a bright future ahead as the Men’s National Team looks to build on the standards Pochettino and his coaching staff put in place.
“The most important thing is all that we left here, the moments that we shared together, all the things that we accomplished, the thing that we put in place – all the standards are all together,” Pochettino said. “We increased that in that Federation and around the world, too… we recovered our motivation, we recovered our capacity to dream big, the capacity to train players that really want to improve and really want to share good moments, and players that really care about the Federation and this country, and they want to put the country and the Federation in the place that deserve to be.”