Gold Cup roster features 18 players who are not on the Nations League roster, giving interim manager B.J. Gold Cup roster features mix of veterans, teens and MLS players That approach won’t work with a national team, where you’re limited to players who carry the same country’s passport. The team spent more than $740 million in transfer fees to acquire the others. Of the 13 players Guardiola used in Saturday’s final, only one, substitute Phil Foden, came up through City’s academy system. At City - and at Barcelona and Bayern Munich before that - Guardiola had the money and support to go out and buy the players that would fit his demanding system. Guardiola is an even bigger long shot.įor starters, the chasm between the club game and international soccer can be difficult to bridge, as Guardiola surely knows. job has previously been linked to other big-name coaches, among them Zinedine Zidane and José Mourinho, but those rumors were always more conjecture than fact. The reward, on the other hand, would be exceptionally high if he defies expectations and takes the team beyond the final 16. has gone beyond the round of 16 just once in the modern era, meaning simply getting out of the group stage could be considered a success. The low risk and high reward of coaching the USMNT at home might be just the kind of challenge Guardiola is looking for. Certainly the federation’s pockets are deep enough to make a run at Guardiola, perhaps even funding it from sponsorship tie-ins linked to the World Cup’s return to the U.S. Although the federation’s proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year calls for an operating deficit of more than $9.4 million, it also projects record revenues of $172.7 million. And neither is likely to wait until 2025, a year before the tournament to hire a permanent manager, even if it is Guardiola. Of the top 20 teams in FIFA’s latest world rankings just two, Brazil and the U.S., have interim managers three years out from the next World Cup. Or perhaps, after his astounding success with proven teams such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the chance to build something new in Italy’s Serie A would appeal to him.īut what about leaving the club game altogether for a national team and the chance to win the sport’s biggest prize, a World Cup? Still ambitious despite having conquered the top three leagues in Europe, Guardiola would undoubtedly be handed a blank check by Nasser bin Ghanim Al-Khelaifi, another oil-rich owner whose own quest of winning a Champions League title at Paris Saint-Germain has repeatedly ended in frustration. Just 52 and a winner of three Champions League crowns, 11 league titles and 13 domestic cups in Spain’s La Liga, the German Bundesliga and the EPL, Guardiola would immediately become the hottest commodity in the coaching market if he stepped away. So why would Guardiola want to stay and risk his reputation amid the maelstrom that is sure to come? The team appealed UEFA’s findings to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and won. He has since reversed course and promised to stay, just as he did three years ago when City was charged by UEFA, the continental governing body for soccer, with cooking the books. When the violations were first revealed in February, Guardiola promised to resign if assurances he received from club leadership that the charges were untrue proved to be lies. The team has denied any wrongdoing and the case has been referred to an independent commission for final judgment, with the possible punishment beginning with a points deduction and escalating from there.įor Guardiola, the embarrassment could be worse than the penalties. The EPL says City provided inaccurate financial information to make it look as if it was complying with the rules when it was flouting them instead. The rules are designed to ensure clubs don’t spend more than they earn, preventing deep-pocketed owners such as City’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan from drowning the rest of the competition in their oil money. After a four-year investigation, the Premier League has charged Manchester City with breaking financial fair play rules more than 100 times between 20. He’s ready for another shot, but will anyone call?īut the bill for all that success is about to come due. Thierry Henry struggled to translate his killer instinct as a player into the right coaching tone. Soccer ‘Can I even win?’ Thierry Henry waits for a phone call and another shot at coaching
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