FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — An emotional Mauricio Pochettino said his farewell Friday morning just hours after the news became official that he would be leaving the U.S. men’s national team to take on the role as manager at Premier League club Manchester United.
Pochettino struggled to keep it together at times during the roughly 30-minute press conference at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center outside of Atlanta.
“When we started talking about the idea of becoming a head coach of this amazing country, of this amazing federation, we were very excited about that and to share a project that would really believe,” Pochettino said. “A project and a program that we were evolving together, that is why it made more difficult that decision [to leave]. A decision that in some part is a very sad decision. In another part, we are professional and we need to try to find the next step.”
He added: “The most important thing is all that we left here. The moment we shared together and all the things that we accomplished and all the things we put in place.”
Pochettino got choked up while discussing the relationship he developed with U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson and U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone.
As the outgoing coach collected himself, Batson patted him on the back.
Friday was the conclusion of what had been a week-long saga as reports came out that Manchester United was interested in bringing on Pochettino as their next manager.
The biggest domino fell Thursday when Man United fired Michael Carrick.
Pochettino said Friday that contact between himself and Manchester United first occurred Sunday and he was “very transparent” with the federation.
The cloud of Pochettino’s eventual departure had hung over the USMNT camp for most of the week, even as training proceeded as normal and the players tried to keep things business as usual.
Pochettino, his staff and most of the U.S. men’s national team attended a U.S. U-20 friendly against Japan taking place at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center on Thursday night.
In one video posted online, Pochettino appeared to become emotional when he was wished well by an attendee at the game.
Pochettino will run the U.S. men’s national team in their two matches against Haiti over the next four days before he heads to Europe.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
