Mauricio Pochettino is staying with the U.S. soccer team, agreeing Monday to a four-year contract to coach the Americans through the 2030 World Cup.
The 54-year-old Pochettino, who took over the national team in October 2024, led the U.S. to the round of 16 at this year's World Cup, where the tournament co-hosts were eliminated in a 4-1 loss to Belgium.
Still, he helped the seeded U.S. team to a pair of firsts in the expanded 48-nation tournament, clinching advancement from the group stage with a game to spare and winning three games in a single World Cup. The team captivated American fans with excited audiences in stadiums and record television viewers.
“The magic thing that happened during the World Cup, the connection with the people, of course with the whole organization and everything was a key point,” Pochettino said during a Zoom news conference from his home in Barcelona, Spain.
Since reaching the quarterfinals at the 2002 World Cup, the U.S. has lost four round-of-16 games.
“What we learn(ed) is that we can compete, that we have the quality and we have the talent,” Pochettino said. “We were so close. That gap with the best teams in the world is not too big.”
Pochettino said there is potential to make soccer in the U.S. “grow and grow and grow and be one of the important sport(s) in America, like it is in the rest of the world.”
“We have players and organization that can compete with the best organization in the world in that sport,” he said. “We learned that the fans are amazing and when they were so excited to discover a sport that made our fans become crazy, no? The connection was amazing.”
Pochettino views the next cycle as a new start for a program lacking quality depth at goalkeeper and central defender.
“It is going to be important to provide the young kids that we really believe (in) that they have the potential to arrive in 2030, in four years,” he said.
Before taking the U.S. job, Pochettino coached Espanyol (2009-12), Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19), Paris Saint-Germain (2021-22) and Chelsea (2023-24).
When Pochettino replaced Gregg Berhalter two years ago, he signed an initial contract through the 2026 World Cup. Pochettino said ahead of the tournament that he had discussed a possible new deal with the USSF. He also said in May that his agent had spoken with AC Milan, a club that then hired Rúben Amorim.
Pochettino, who has homes in Spain and London, said he may move to the U.S. He intends to stay with the American team until 2030 but left himself an out.
“Four years time is a really long period. You never know what can happen in soccer,” he said. “Today people really love you. In eight weeks time, maybe that change(s), that feeling."
He has led the U.S. to 17 wins (including a penalty-kick victory), 13 losses and one draw. Twenty-three of 62 players to appear under Pochettino have accounted for the team’s 57 goals.
“We know we have a lot of work to do to achieve our clear ambitions, including competing to win Men’s World Cups and having soccer become the most played sport in every community,” USSF CEO JT Batson said in a statement.
Hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is again the lead philanthropic funder supporting Pochettino’s contract with additional support by Scott Goodwin, Adam Freede and commercial partners. Pochettino earned just over $5 million in his first seven months as coach, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation tax return.
U.S. coaches have not been successful when they remained for a second World Cup cycle.
After leading the Americans to the 2002 quarterfinals, Bruce Arena was unable to get his team past the group stage in 2006.
Bob Bradley helped the U.S. reach the round of 16 in 2010, then was fired a year later after the team lost the CONCACAF Gold Cup final.
Jurgen Klinsmann took over and in December 2013 was given an extension through the 2018 World Cup. The Americans reached the round of 16 in 2014 but Klinsmann was fired in late 2016 after the U.S. lost its first two games in the final round of qualifying. Arena returned but the U.S. failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Berhalter was hired in late 2018 and led the Americans to the round of 16 in 2022. Given a new contract in 2023, he was fired a year later after the U.S. failed to advance past the group stage at Copa America.
“We are going to demand more from them," he said of the players. “We are not going to be in some situation(s) not flexible like we were because before it was (for) the benefit of players, benefit of structures that were already built. But now it’s about to start the house from zero.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - United States men's national soccer team head coach Mauricio Pochettino walks out to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays, July 3, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A record-breaking hot and dry summer tightened its grip on Europe Monday, as water-dropping planes swooped over a major wildfire in Greece, firefighters in France sought to stabilize a blaze in Provence, and much of the U.K. recorded its driest July in nearly two centuries.
Wildfires west of Athens jumped containment lines, a day after a midair collision between two helicopters killed two crew members.
A Greek and a Danish national died and two others were hospitalized in the helicopter collision. All four were private operators chartered by the Greek firefighting service.
In France, firefighters in the region around Bordeaux guarded against potential flare-ups inside a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris.
A prolonged heat wave and lack of rainfall led to the driest July in England and Wales in nearly 200 years of recordkeeping, according to provisional statistics, the U.K.’s weather service said Monday.
All of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought, the Met Office said. The dry spell was accompanied by sweltering temperatures across much of the U.K., following heat waves in May and June.
Wales tied its record for its warmest mean temperature for July while England and the U.K. recorded their second-warmest July.
Strong winds returned to southern Greece late Monday, pushing flames into mountain home clusters, destroying farms and property, and closing a highway.
Areas surrounding Athens remain at high risk through the week with temperatures set to rise further. More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from around the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and other areas west of the capital – including more than 250 rescued by boats from beaches in the area.
“This is a difficult fire that has troubled us,” Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said, adding that 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were operating in the area Monday.
The blaze was blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm and led to the arrests of two contractors on charges of negligent arson.
Despite improved detection methods and expanded cooperation among European Union members, Greece and other countries along Europe's Mediterranean coast suffer devastating wildfires every summer as spells of heat wave temperatures grow longer.
Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
In France, thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home or to holiday accommodation Monday after a massive wildfire remained contained. More than 224,000 people had fled in what officials said was the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.
The wildfire burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles), making it France’s largest wildfire on record. Monday's return includes Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourist hot spot along the Atlantic coast, and Le Porge, the municipality hardest hit by the fire, where 183 homes were destroyed. Campsites remain closed.
A second wildfire in Provence did not flare up overnight, but was still not contained Monday as stronger winds were expected, firefighters and authorities said. About 1,500 firefighters, supported by water-dropping helicopters, continued reinforcing fire lines along the blaze that tore through about 18 square kilometers (7 square miles).
The European Forest Fire Information System said the risk of wildfire remains high across parts of the continent through Aug. 5, including in traditionally cooler northern countries.
Firefighters in the Netherlands were battling a large blaze Monday in a forest in the southern province of Limburg, authorities said, as the country sweltered through another day of hot, dry summer weather. The national railway operator halted trains between two towns in the area due to the fire.
The Dutch air force sent two Chinook helicopters equipped with large water containers to help firefighters tackle the blaze in the Netherlands. Media reported that a campsite in the area was evacuated due to poor air quality caused by a large plume of smoke.
Corbet reported from Paris. Elena Becatoros in Athens, Thomas Adamson in Paris, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands and Brian Melley in London contributed.
A firefighting helicopter drops water over a smoke-filled forest during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
Flames are seen on a mountainside during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
A volunteer firefighter observs a flame rising next to a house during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
A volunteer tries to extinguish small flames during a wildfire near Porto Germeno, northwest of Athens, Greece, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
