"I am 200% Argentino. I'm not going to lie." Mauricio Pochettino said that to a British reporter who dared ask whether he'd started to feel a little American. The denial came fast. But the evidence tells a more complicated story.
The man grew up on a cattle ranch near Murphy, Santa Fe — population 3,000, 200 miles west of Buenos Aires — where his father worked until dusk and weekends didn't exist. He dealt with pigs. He watched cows. He knew the U.S. dollar only as the thing that set livestock prices. America was an abstraction.
Now he's the coach who learned the words to "Take Me Home, Country Roads" over a two-week stretch, who threw out a ceremonial first pitch at T-Mobile Park, who cried watching "Miracle" alone in November, and who walked past American reporters on July 4 wishing them a "happy birthday."
From a Rams game to Herb Brooks
When Pochettino arrived at LaGuardia in September 2024 — BOSS hat, wide eyes, snapping pictures of skyscrapers — he was genuinely new to this country. Preseason tours with Tottenham and Chelsea had taken him to Seattle, Denver, Nashville, and Southern California over the years, but those were nice hotels and glistening training pitches. He didn't know the place.
He learned it in pieces. An NFL game in the owner's suite at SoFi Stadium. A Rangers hockey game in New York. Breakfast with Chick-fil-A chairman Dan Cathy in Georgia. A Whole Foods revelation: "People say Americans have no healthy food. Yes, you have healthy food."
Then came the Ohio State-Texas college football opener in Columbus — 100,000 fans, three hours of pregame atmosphere, a chat with Matthew McConaughey on Fox's Big Noon Kickoff. "I was so jealous," Pochettino said. "I want to coach these teams." He laughed. He wasn't entirely joking.
The "Miracle" film hit him differently. He watched it, cried, and within days was citing Herb Brooks in press conferences. "We don't need the best players, we need the right players to make a team a strong team." For a USMNT side that will never out-talent Brazil or France on paper, that philosophy isn't just inspiration — it's the actual strategy. It shaped how he's built this squad, and it's a big part of why the U.S. is still in this World Cup.
What the players actually see
Christian Pulisic showed up to a meeting at Pochettino's office and heard country music playing. "It's just funny," Pulisic said. Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Ella Langley, Teddy Swims — Pochettino has absorbed the playlist.
Folarin Balogun described a coach who arrives curious, not performing. "He might be watching a basketball game or something, and he's intrigued, and he wants to learn more." Captain Tim Ream put it plainly: "He's embraced the American culture while adding his own flair to this group."
That balance matters. Pochettino hasn't tried to Argentinize the USMNT or lecture American fans about what real football passion looks like — though he did, early on, pointedly note that U.S. supporters were being outnumbered by Mexico and Guatemala fans and that Instagram support doesn't translate into stadium energy. He said it. Then he moved on.
The USMNT is through to the round of 16. The odds on how far they go will keep shifting, but what's already clear is that the connection between this coach and this team is genuine — and stranger and more interesting than anyone expected when he signed on in 2024.
"When you feel part of something bigger," Pochettino said, "I enjoy being part of that amazing project."
200% Argentine. And apparently, somewhere in there, a little bit of something else.
