Mauricio Pochettino has said his decision to leave his role as U.S. men\u2019s national team manager is the most difficult of his career, after confirming he will move on following the current camp.<\/p>\n
Speaking in an emotional press conference on Friday, Pochettino acknowledged the weight of the choice while sitting alongside U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson and President Cindy Parlow Cone. \u201cIt’s difficult to talk now,\u201d Pochettino said. \u201cI’m an very emotional guy. It’s a very sad decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
The media briefing had been intended to focus on Saturday\u2019s Concacaf Nations League meeting with Haiti, but the announcement inevitably dominated proceedings. Pochettino and his staff will still oversee the two quarterfinal legs, on Saturday and Tuesday, before heading to the Premier League and beginning work at Old Trafford officially on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He explained that his affection for the USMNT and the progress made during his spell made the exit harder to accept. \u201cI appreciate the program that we were evolving together, that\u2019s what makes even more difficult the decision,\u201d he said. \u201cA decision in some part is a very sad decision, but in other parts, we are professionals, and we need to find the next step, try to make our dreams come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pochettino had signed a new long-term deal with U.S. Soccer in August, a contract that ran through the 2030 World Cup and included a wider role in the federation\u2019s youth pathways and initiatives. That context only sharpened the significance of the move. \u201cYes, I had signed a new deal until 2030, but the [U.S. Soccer] federation knows not so many opportunities appear in your life like Manchester United,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd of course when that arrives, it\u2019s difficult to turn down that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed that the final days would remain focused on duty. \u201cBut now is not the time to talk, it\u2019s the time to show commitment and to prepare for the next two games.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. Soccer moved quickly to praise his impact. Batson said: \u201cMauricio has left a lasting mark on U.S. Soccer through his leadership, professionalism and commitment to our players and culture,\u201d while Parlow Cone told him: \u201cYou\u2019ve contributed to the program getting better … I want to give you a heartfelt thank you and we\u2019re going to miss you. We are in a stronger place today than we were two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pochettino called his USMNT exit his hardest decision, with Old Trafford next on his path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[1754,182],"class_list":["post-22454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-2026-27-fixtures","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}