USMNT general manager Brian McBride exits the job

This article was updated on Jan. 26 after McBride’s departure became official. When his exit was first reported on Jan. 21, it was cast by The Inquirer and other outlets as a dismissal. On the 26th, McBride and U.S. Soccer president Cindy Cone said that it was voluntary, and had been in the works since October. U.S. Soccer also confirmed that Earnie Stewart’s contract as sporting director was to run through 2026, until he left that job to become the director of football at the Netherlands’ PSV Eindhoven.

Click here for our latest reporting on McBride and Stewart’s departures.

Brian McBride is out as U.S. men’s soccer team general manager, multiple outlets reported Friday night, in the wake of the World Cup and this month’s Reyna-Berhalter scandal.

McBride and sporting director Earnie Stewart received complaints from Claudio Reyna, their former U.S. teammate, over the lack of playing time for Claudio’s son, Gio, in Qatar. It’s not yet known how McBride responded to them.

Nor is it specifically clear whether Claudio sent McBride the threat to reveal manager Gregg Berhalter’s 31-year-old domestic violence incident that Claudio’s wife, Danielle Reyna, sent to Stewart. Danielle sent the threat, and later publicly admitted to doing so, without the consent of the victim, her former college roommate and Gregg’s then-girlfriend — now-wife of 25-plus years — Rosalind.

Claudio Reyna claimed to ESPN after the scandal broke that “at no time did I ever threaten anyone, nor would I ever do so,” but ESPN reported that he did threaten to share allegations of some kind.

The years Reyna, McBride, Stewart, and Berhalter spent together on the national team included the 2002 World Cup run to the quarterfinals.

» READ MORE: Claudio and Danielle Reyna, Gio’s parents, admit to disclosing incident to U.S. Soccer concerning Gregg Berhalter

McBride was hired as GM at the start of 2020, and given a contract that expired at the end of 2022. Stewart made the hire five months after being promoted from men’s team GM to sporting director, with oversight of the men’s and women’s programs. (Kate Markgraf was hired as women’s team’s GM at the same time as Stewart’s promotion.)

Officially, each GM job has direct oversight of its respective team’s manager, and Stewart has oversight of both GMs. But the decision on whether to retain Berhalter was never going to be McBride’s alone, even before the scandal. CEO JT Batson and president Cindy Parlow Cone also will be involved, and the federation’s board of directors must vote to approve any major hire’s contract.

Last Friday at the United Soccer Coaches convention in Philadelphia, Batson told Soccer America that McBride was “still currently employed,” and the governing body had not “made any long-term decisions.”

That changed by the time of Thursday’s U.S. Soccer board of directors meeting. Though none of Stewart, McBride, or Markgraf spoke during the public portion of the meeting, the Washington Post reported that Stewart told the closed-off executive session that McBride would not continue in the job.

Cone said in the public session that the investigation “should be completed in the coming weeks.” She said on the day the investigation was announced that “we need to speed this along,” but otherwise has stayed quiet.

Enforcing a timeline on the investigation, which is being run by an outside law firm, could cause the investigators to skip details. It also could open up U.S. Soccer to a charge of telling the investigators what to do.

» READ MORE: Cindy Cone says U.S. Soccer’s Reyna-Berhalter investigation should finish in ‘the coming weeks’

When McBride was hired, U.S. Soccer said his “primary areas of focus will be to oversee the development and management of the player pool, build and guide the culture within the men’s national team environment, manage relationships with clubs and represent the USMNT on the global stage.”

That effectively made him the program’s chief diplomat, including a role in recruiting players with multiple nationalities. Whoever succeeds McBride will likely also have that as a major task in the lead-up to the United States’ hosting of the 2026 men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico.

Just in the current men’s team training camp for reserves, there are three players that the U.S. is battling Mexico to win over: striker Brandon Vazquez, winger Alejandro Zendejas, and left back Jonathan Gómez. Anthony Hudson is serving as interim manager for the camp.

The program’s major recruiting wins in recent times include Sergiño Dest (over the Netherlands in 2019), Yunus Musah (over England, Ghana, and Italy in 2021), Ricardo Pepi (over Mexico in 2021), and Malik Tillman (over Germany last year).

What about Berhalter? His future remains unclear, pending a review of his work on the field and an investigation of the domestic violence incident. Stewart has signaled he’d like to keep him, and Berhalter told the Harvard Business Review in early January that he’d like to stay on. But ESPN reported Friday that the scandal’s fallout “makes it increasingly less likely” that Berhalter will continue.

U.S. Soccer has reached out to other candidates during the investigation and review, reportedly including French legend and former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane.

Stewart’s contract runs through 2026, the Washington Post reported. It was extended that far last July, though U.S. Soccer never formally announced it.

» READ MORE: DaMarcus Beasley calls for Gregg Berhalter’s exit from U.S. men’s national team