NJ-native Pellegrino Matarazzo emerges as top choice for USMNT head-coaching job

A top head-coaching choice has emerged for the United States Men’s National Team.

The United States Soccer Federation is offering Pellegrino Matarazzo, an American who manages German club TSG Hoffenheim, its open job, according to German outlet Bild .

Sky Sports reported that Matarazzo has been identified as one of the USSF’s top choices but that an offer had not yet been formally made.

The USSF fired Gregg Berhalter as USMNT manager in July after an extremely polarizing 5 1/2 seasons in charge, which culminated in an embarrassing exit in the group stages at the 2024 Copa America, which was hosted on U.S. soil.

Matarazzo, 46, was among the most realistic options in The Post’s shortlist for the job .

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A Wayne, New Jersey native, he led Hoffenheim to a seventh-placed finish in the Bundesliga last year — the team’s best since 2019-20 — in his first season in charge.

Before that, he managed German side VfB Stuttgart for parts of three seasons and was fired in 2022.

Matarazzo has spent his entire professional career in Germany, playing for various low-level professional teams in the country before beginning his coaching career.

He was notably roommates with highly-regarded manager Julian Nagelsmann — who manages the German national team and previously managed Bayern Munich, Red Bull Leipzig and Hoffenheim — at German coaching training in 2015.

Matarazzo later joined Nagelsmann’s staff with Hoffenheim in 2017, starting as a youth coach before becoming Nagelsmann’s — and his successor Alfred Schreuder’s — assistant.

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VfB Stuttgart gave him his first managerial opportunity in 2019, and he returned to Hoffenheim as manager last year.

He played collegiately at Columbia, where he graduated with a degree in applied mathematics

Now, he has to weigh his current Hoffenheim gig with the chance to lead his home nation.

It’s an incredibly intriguing opportunity to take over the USMNT — the U.S., in addition to Mexico and Canada, will host the 2026 World Cup in what many hope will be a culmination of surging American interest in soccer.

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And though they failed at this summer’s Copa America, the USMNT still possesses a core — led by Christian Pulisic, Folarin Balogun, Gio Reyna, Antonee Robinson, Tyler Adams and others — that is considered one of, if not the best in program history.

Nearly the entire roster plays at the highest level across Europe, and the group is still young enough for a new manager to bring the best out of it.

Matarazzo does face a bit of uncertainty at Hoffenheim, also.

His contract expires after this upcoming season in June 2025, and the team fired his boss, managing director for sport Alexander Rosen, last week.

The USMNT needs a new leader.

Will Matarazzo make the leap?

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