Jurgen Klopp turns down USA soccer interest after approach to succeed Gregg Berhalter, per report

Much may not be known about the early U.S. Soccer search to replace Gregg Berhalter as manager of the men's national team, but one thing that we do know is that Jurgen Klopp won't be the next coach of the team. According to The Athletic, Klopp has turned down an approach from USSF to be the manager of the USMNT heading into the 2026 World Cup.

Klopp stepped down as manager of Liverpool to take a break from soccer due to the demands of coaching on the club level, but doing its due diligence, U.S. Soccer reached out to see if he would be interested in the now-open role of coaching the men's team. Klopp did reiterate that he'd like a break from soccer even with the open role, according to the report.

U.S. sporting director Matt Crocker stated that the focus was on finding the next coach of the USMNT quickly and that the search was already underway for finding who that may be, which the Klopp approach does reinforce. They had to at least reach out to see what would happen considering that Klopp is one of the top names potentially on the market.

The USMNT won't play a match until Sept. 7 against Canada, giving a clear timeline to when a new head coach should be hired by. Asking about Klopp does show that Crocker is aiming high with this hire but it does also leave wonder of how appealing the role is to the top tier managers around the world. 

There are plenty of names left to talk to depending on the direction that U.S. Soccer wants to go, but expectations will be high ahead of a World Cup on home soil. There isn't another name like Klopp on the market but that doesn't mean that someone can't come in to unlock the untapped potential of the USMNT.