It’s still unknown whether or not U.S. Men’s National Team manager Jurgen Klinsmann will keep his job after a 2-1 loss to Mexico and a 4-0 loss to Costa Rica in World Cup Qualifying. I personally don’t think Klinsmann is going anywhere but SI’s Grant Wahl reported on Facebook that his sources have it as a 60%-70% chance that Klinsmann will be fired.
With at least an inkling that there could be a change in manager, betting house Paddy Power listed their odds as to who will be the next USA manager.
With reports that former USMNT and current LA Galaxy manager Bruce Arena would be the likely replacement, Paddy Power has him at a 4/11 favorite. But there are two names on the list who would be quite interesting choices as manager.
Outgoing President Barack Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump are both listed at 500/1 to be the next USMNT manager. While that seems unlikely, keep in mind that Leicester City were 5000/1 odds to win the Premier League last season. Also keep in mind, Donald Trump played soccer in high school so he at least has some experience for the USMNT job.
But getting back to the likely candidates, there is a big group behind Arena with similar odds. Columbus Crew SC manager Gregg Berhalter is slightly favored at 11/1 but after him, seven people are listed at 12/1. These include the man Klinsmann replaced and current Swansea manager Bob Bradley and former USA player Steve Cherundolo. The other five are MLS team managers and they include San Jose’s Dominic Kinnear, Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes, Red Bulls Jesse Marsch, FC Dallas’ Oscar Pareja and Portland’s Caleb Porter.
Other people listed (who will clearly not be the next manager) include Tim Sherwood (33/1) Louis van Gaal, Arsene Wenger, Steven Gerrard, Eddie Howe, Ryan Giggs (all 50/1), Jose Mourinho, Brendan Rodgers, Alan Pardew, Laurent Blanc and Harry Redknapp (all 66/1).
Ironically, two people not listed would be great choices should U.S. Soccer decide to go in a different direction. Former Seattle Sounder manager Sigi Schmid is currently unemployed and current Colorado Rapid manager Pablo Mastroeni is up for MLS Coach of the Year and has already coached Tim Howard and Jermaine Jones.
Either way, it’s interesting to see where the money is going to figure out who will be the next to take over for the United States. Even if it doesn’t happen for a couple years.
[Paddy Power/Photo: Reuters]
