Gregg Berhalter set to return as USMNT manager, reports say

Gregg Berhalter is set to return as the U.S. men’s soccer team manager, the Athletic and other outlets reported Thursday night, six months after Berhalter’s contract expired amid acrimony in a scandal with star player Gio Reyna and his parents.

Though the deal is not done yet, the Washington Post was also among the outlets to report that it is close to finished.

The move will be very controversial among U.S. fans, many of whom wanted the program to move on from Berhalter for a range of reasons. There was the scandal sparked by the Reyna parents, both of whom used to play for U.S. national teams; Berhalter’s college-age intimate partner abuse incident with the woman who later became his wife, the lack of goals at last fall’s World Cup; and just the principle that it’s good practice to not have the same coach for two World Cup cycles.

But Berhalter recently earned strong backing from U.S. stalwarts Christian Pulisic, Tim Weah and Antonee Robinson. All three players were on the field for the U.S. team during Thursday’s Concacaf Nations League semifinal win over arch-rival Mexico, for which Ventnor native B.J. Callaghan — the second interim manager since Berhalter’s departure — was in charge. Pulisic scored the first two goals and Weah assisted the second in a 3-0 rout at the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium.

» READ MORE: B.J. Callaghan’s rise up the U.S. men’s soccer team's coaching staff has roots at Villanova

If the players’ remarks served as a potential lining up as dominoes, the first of them fell on Wednesday when Berhalter reportedly backed out of consideration to become manager of Mexican powerhouse club América. Fox Sports reported that he did so because he believed he was in contention to get his old job back.

In the days before then, Berhalter was named as a candidate not just for América, but for Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam.

The next domino fell a few hours before the news of Berhalter’s return emerged, when the agent of veteran American manager Jesse Marsch — long seen as the favorite to get the job — announced on Twiter that Marsch was out. A separate source confirmed that to The Inquirer. Multiple sources also said to be ready for an announcement of some kind on Friday morning, but spoke before the Berhalter news got out and did not give details of what the announcement was to be.

» READ MORE: A timeline of the Reyna-Berhalter scandal that rocked U.S. soccer

Little is known about who else was considered for the job. Fox Sports reported on Wednesday that new U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker spoke with “more than 10 candidates,” including “multiple” Americans and figures from “France, England, Germany, and Spain.”

ESPN reported on Wednesday that Patrick Vieira was one of those candidates, and he was quite interested. Vieira was a star player for Arsenal, Inter Milan, Juventus, Manchester City, and France, then started a managerial career that took him to New York City FC, Nice, and, most recently, Crystal Palace.

Union manager Jim Curtin was on the public’s list of candidates, and has not been shy about his desire to help the program leading up to the 2026 World Cup that the U.S., Canada and Mexico will host. But whatever formal consideration he was given did not turn out to be much.