Cutting through the noise of the Mauricio Pochettino-AC Milan rumors

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — When the Athletic reported on Thursday that U.S. men’s soccer team manager Mauricio Pochettino met with Italian giant AC Milan about its coaching vacancy, no one was shocked.

It was news, to be sure, but it’s far from the first time Pochettino has talked with places he could move to after the World Cup. Though the door isn’t closed to staying with the U.S., it’s been obvious for a long time that he was likely a short-term hire. The odds of his leaving rose even more when the man who hired him, sporting director Matt Crocker, left his job in March to join Saudi Arabia’s federation.

But like every sport, soccer’s chattering classes love a hot coaching rumor. So when Pochettino and U.S. Soccer Federation CEO JT Batson met with the media on Thursday, that subject dominated the questions.

A lot was said, a lot was written, and a lot was speculated. Let’s try to address what matters.

Pochettino’s contract ends after the World Cup. He insisted that he and his staff are committed and focused on the U.S. program until then.

“What I am going to tell you, and I think it’s transparency, is: we commit with the U.S. men’s national team until we finish the World Cup,” Pochettino said. “And in this nearly two years [in the job], we have so many approaches, and we always said, ‘We finish [our] contract in July, after the World Cup.’”

Before U.S. Soccer hired Pochettino in 2024, his coaching record at big European clubs ensured he had many suitors.

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They have kept coming since: England’s Tottenham Hotspur (which later hired Roberto De Zerbi), Spain’s Real Madrid (which might soon re-hire Jose Mourinho), and Milan.

“Even when we first met a couple summers ago, there were lots of other people interested in having Mauricio and [his] team join,” Batson said. “He had standing offers from other places to come, and he wanted to be here.”

Pochettino affirmed that a few hours later.

“When we received the offer from the USA, we received also a few offers for different [teams] — in that moment, bigger offers. And we wanted to come here. Do you think that now we are going to change when we are so close to being in the World Cup?”

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Asked directly whether Pochettino told him of a meeting with Milan, Batson didn’t say yes or no. But his answer told its own story.

“They’ve been transparent about club interest for the last couple of years,” he said. “There’s been a longer list of outreach than what has even been reported. And so they’ve been great about that.”

He started with a flourish.

“People that question my commitment are people that want to create some problems,” he said. “Because when I signed nearly two years ago it was, our contract runs until we finish the World Cup.”

Pochettino denied that he personally met with Milan’s brass, which is what the Athletic reported. Asked whether his representatives did, he said, “Maybe. Possibly. Because they need to do their jobs.”

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From there, he embarked on a range of ways to make the same point: he is fully committed to the World Cup, but after that he’ll be unemployed a month before the next European club season starts. He is not the first coach to be in that situation, and won’t be the last.

“That is normal, but that is normal [for] all my colleagues, you know,” he said. “It’s a lot of examples that people under contract in different clubs met other people.”

Perhaps it doesn’t happen in American sports, with closed leagues and no global competition for marquee coaches. But soccer’s global nature makes it different.

A few minutes later, he put it this way: “If some club came and said, ‘Oh, Mauricio, we want you, but you need to start tomorrow.’ I say, ‘Sorry, I commit with the national team.’ Being the best-in-the-world club, or I don’t know which club, they can give me all that promise and everything. I am not going to change.”

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Distilled to this level, it really isn’t that Earth-shattering. And while Pochettino has genuinely enjoyed the job — he hasn’t closed the door to an extension — it shouldn’t be surprising when a hired gun isn’t overly loyal.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “Of course I’ve met some people at different clubs, but that is a conversation because we have friends in football. We have friends everywhere. And my representatives work for me to try to find the best possibility for the future.”

Though he has mused about it in the past, he said Thursday that the first time it was formally raised was last Sunday over a fancy dinner in New York.

Pochettino said Batson asked “if we are open to listen to the project of the Federation for the next four years. And we said, ‘Of course we are open.’”

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That doesn’t mean he will stay. But it gave him an opportunity to say thanks.

“We have full respect for the USA, we have full respect for the Federation,” he said. “And we are so grateful [for] the Federation, what they are giving: the possibility to be involved in a dream. Because [for] a coaching staff, it’s difficult to have the possibility to be involved in a World Cup.”

Batson spoke a few hours before Pochettino, so there wasn’t a chance to get his side of that specific story. But he did say: “We’ve had a number of very long discussions around what the next four years could look like. We’re excited and they’re excited, but of course we’ve got to focus on the summer, which we’re doing.”

He added that U.S. Soccer leaders “on a monthly basis have a succession planning session for all of our coaches across all of our teams. And so as a part of that, we have plans for renewals, we have plans for interims, and we have plans for replacements, because you never know what’s going to happen.”

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Whether or not Pochettino re-ups, he has a genuine interest in U.S. Soccer’s future. He showed it when he brought Noahkai Banks to the squad last September, and he showed it again this week.

“Mauricio, Jesús [Pérez, the top assistant], Dan [Helfrich, U.S. Soccer’s chief operating officer] and I were actually the last people to leave the national training center last night,” Batson said “The session was all about the [2028] Olympics, was about our youth teams, about coaching education.”

Since Crocker hired Pochettino, it would make sense to wait to hire the next full-time manager until Crocker’s successor is in place. But Batson made some news when he revealed things might not go that way.

“We started a process in February, thinking about sort of the long-term structure of our soccer organization,” he said. “Just for clarity, I would not expect a like-for-like sporting director going forward. And we are very active both planning and executing that new structure.”

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This subject definitely won’t get settled until after the World Cup. And here’s a word of caution for readers who are newer to the sport: U.S. Soccer has given four straight men’s national team managers a second term, but they’ve all ended badly.

Bruce Arena’s second World Cup ended in a group-stage exit. Bob Bradley was fired after a collapse in the 2011 Gold Cup final. Jurgen Klinsmann was fired when qualifying for the 2018 World Cup went off the rails. Gregg Berhalter returned after the scandal with Gio Reyna, but was axed after the 2024 Copa América failure.

At the same time, second terms aren’t international soccer’s norm. Pochettino knows that, even if he’s only had half of a first one.

The World Cup in Philly

Nine nations will compete in five group stage matches this summer, plus two more in a knockout game on July 4. Here’s what you need to know about those countries — and what those fans need to know about Philly. Click here for more.