NEW YORK (AP) — Former players Alexi Lalas and Stu Holden along with fellow Fox broadcasters Rebecca Lowe and Rob Stone all think the U.S. Soccer Federation should contact Pep Guardiola about taking over as the American national team's coach after the World Cup.
“Pep would be a wonderful hire. He’s a visionary. He’s one of the best coaches that’s ever coached in this game,” Holden said Thursday at an event to promote Fox’s World Cup coverage.
Guardiola
is expected to leave Manchester City after Sunday’s finale of his 10th season as manager.
Mauricio Pochettino, the former Tottenham manager who took over the U.S. team from Gregg Berhalter in late 2024, has a contract through the World Cup and has said he isn’t sure whether he would be interested in a new U.S. deal.
Guardiola is likely to be highly sought.
“I don’t know if he takes the call, but he might even be calling you,” said Lalas, a star U.S. defender at the 1994 World Cup. “He’s never coached internationally. He’s also never coached a team that’s not an elite team. ... He might not be the right guy, but you definitely have that conversation.”
Lowe, a British-born, naturalized American who grew up in London and lives in California, has hosted NBC’s Premier League coverage since 2013 and will be working for Fox for the first time next month.
“Having somebody like Pep would double or triple the fan base in my opinion in this country because they’re out there but they need to fall in love with the U.S. men’s national team,” she said. “And then on the field, he will improve the players. I know he won’t get them very often, but when he gets them, he’ll improve them. Imagine if you’re Weston McKennie and Pep Guardiola is your manager? You are running through a brick wall for that man.”
Guardiola, a 55-year-old Spaniard, won two Champions League titles with Barcelona and one with Manchester City along six Premier League championships and three in La Liga and also in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich.
After coaching Barcelona from 2008-12, he moved to New York for a one-year sabbatical, then led Bayern Munich from 2013-16 before switching to Manchester.
“He’s the kind of guy who would like that new challenge: taking over a national team, coming to a country that probably feels like his second or third home,” Stone said. “So this is that next logical challenge.”
Holden, a U.S. midfielder at the 2010 World Cup, can envision Guardiola in a non-coaching role with the USSF, which also must find a replacement for Matt Crocker, who quit as sporting director last month to take a job with Saudi Arabia's governing body.
“How important is the head coach of the national team versus having somebody like that involved from a technical standpoint?” Holden said. “What they could do for youth programming and that part of the game, what we need to continue to get right.”
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