Ever since Jesse Marsch traded in his cleats for a clipboard, he seemed destined to coach the U.S. men’s national soccer team.
The Wisconsin native’s first job after a long playing career in MLS was as an assistant for the U.S. Then after coaching domestically, Marsch went on to blaze trails in Europe, where they tend to view American coaches the same way they view American cars—loud, unsophisticated and bad for the planet.
It was all building up to him someday returning as the coach who could lift American men’s soccer out of mediocrity.
At one point, in 2023, Marsch even believed he had the job—until, he later explained, the federation reversed course. Marsch was furious. But then he found a gig with a country that he realized better fit his style and personality.