"I was literally being fingerprinted for a visa at Leicester." That's where Jesse Marsch was when a phone call rerouted his entire career — and handed Canada one of the most motivated coaches heading into a home World Cup.
Marsch told GiveMeSport he was "devastated and angry" after US Soccer made it crystal clear he would replace Gregg Berhalter as USMNT manager, only to flip that decision entirely. He turned down Leicester City on the strength of that assurance. Then it evaporated.
"It was made very clear to me by US Soccer that I was going to be the coach, and then it was made very clear to me that I was not," he said.
What US Soccer did next
The federation's sequence of decisions in that period deserves scrutiny. They passed on Marsch, re-hired Berhalter, watched him get eliminated at group stage on home soil at Copa América 2024, fired him, then handed the job to Mauricio Pochettino. That's three managers in the span of a World Cup cycle, on a timeline that left a credible, tactically proven American coach standing in a visa office in England wondering what just happened.
Berhalter's second tenure was, to put it plainly, a mess. Pochettino now has the unenviable job of building cohesion in the remaining months before June.
Meanwhile, Marsch has quietly assembled something real in Canada. He took over in May 2024 with the team ranked 50th in the world. They're now at 26. He's expanded the player pool, toured all 10 provinces and three territories to embed himself in the country's football culture, and by his own account, found somewhere he actually wants to be.
Canada's World Cup picture
"I can't imagine a job that I'd rather have at this moment in time," Marsch said — and given what he walked away from, that's not just a polished media answer. Canada open World Cup play on June 12 in Group B, with final tune-up friendlies against Uzbekistan and Ireland in Edmonton and Montréal in June, following this month's matches against Tunisia and Iceland in Toronto.
For anyone pricing up Group B futures or Canada's tournament odds, a side that's climbed 24 FIFA ranking spots under a coach with genuine top-flight European experience is not the same team that limped through qualification cycles a decade ago. The motivation factor here is real — Marsch has something to prove, and he knows exactly who he's proving it to.
"At the time, I was devastated and angry," he said. "But now I am thankful and really happy to be where I'm at."
US Soccer handed Canada a coach who had already turned down a Premier League job for a chance at the USMNT role. That's the kind of edge that doesn't show up in the rankings.
