2026-06-13 09:33:49
Mauricio Pochettino suggested he’d have been “kicked out” as coach of Team USA if he didn’t tell President Donald Trump his side could win the World Cup.
The Argentinian believes the host nation – who he took charge of in September 2024 – can go all the way in the tournament, but even if he had any doubt, he knows it wouldn’t have bene a good idea to voice them when asked by the US leader.
He told the Guardian newspaper: “First, because I believe it. And second because when the biggest representative of a country asks … if I was the president and the coach didn’t reply with the vehemence I expect, didn’t say ‘of course’, I’d kick him out.
“If the coach wavers: ‘This isn’t my guy, bring another one.’ “
The former Tottenham Hotspur coach thinks it is important to “believe in the impossible” as both a player and a coach.
He said: “I never had an American dream. I didn’t speak English, didn’t understand anything, hadn’t been in the US: I didn’t go until Seattle in 2014 with Tottenham and one game in Washington in 1999 with Argentina.
“I had an Argentinian dream, then a Spanish dream, an English dream.
“The American dream is the idea anything is possible and we all have dreams: it doesn’t just belong to America.
“But why not? In football you can’t be honest: you need to create dreams, believe in the impossible.
“Because the impossible can be done. In football if you don’t believe: ciao! But if you believe you will have a chance, for sure.”
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