Jurgen Klopp already has USMNT connection ahead of Liverpool tenure amid new job rumors

Many American soccer fans have seen former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp as the dream candidate to whip the 2026 World Cup co-hosts into shape after a calamitous exit from the Copa America group stage this week.

And while the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) may not have the pedigree typically associated with a two-time Champions League winner, Klopp already enjoys some familiarity with the USA roster as a longtime admirer time of star striker Christian Pulisic.

“I had when I left Dortmund, Pulisic came, so I had him at 16 in training and I thought ‘Oh my God! Wow!'” Klopp, who briefly overlapped with Pulisic in Germany, told the Anfield Wrap last month. “And then you see him later on at Chelsea, doing well now at AC Milan. I’d love to hang out with all the people in the building.”

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Pulisic agreed to leave his home in Hershey, Pennsylvania, behind to join the German club just before his 16th birthday, attracted by Dortmund’s reputation, shaped in large part by Klopp, as a premier developer of young talent. Klopp was on the sidelines at Dortmund from 2008 to 2015, winning back-to-back Bundesliga titles and a Champions League final appearance while developing global superstars Robert Lewandowski, Ilkay Gundogan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The German manager enjoyed similar success at Liverpool, lifting the Reds’ first Premier League trophy and winning the 2019 Champions League crown. Klopp voluntarily stepped down from his job on Merseyside at the end of this season, claiming he was “running out of energy”, but later quotes suggest he may be leaning towards the more sporadic schedule of international play.

“There is no question that I will stop working,” Klopp told the Willipedia podcast after leaving Liverpool. “But I don’t see myself continuing at the same pace as before at this point.” A 2024 Q&A run by The Athletic’s Simon Hughes reinforced American fans’ interest in the Gegenpressing manager, writing “The only national job he (Klopp) would take would be Germany. Or maybe the USA”.

The Americans, meanwhile, hit a five-year low this summer after failing to advance from a Copa America group that included international powerhouses Panama and Bolivia. The US Soccer Federation has announced a “complete review” of the head coaching role, but former USA goalkeeper Tim Howard, who played nine seasons at Stanley Park with Everton, shares Hughes’ confidence that Klopp will be open to the USA job.

“If I was in charge of US Soccer right now, I’d be on my way to the airport,” Howard wrote in an editorial for the Daily Mail. “Why? Because I think I could make a very convincing case to Jurgen Klopp to take over the US Men’s National Team… I’ll personally be flying to Spain.

“I know Klopp has only been retired for a few weeks and I know he wants a break. But if we sat around his villa in Spain I think I could lure him here. 100 per cent. The money is definitely there. So my proposal would be simple: he has a young group of players who can play progressive football, just like his Liverpool teams and in two years he can go to the biggest World Cup in history.