Klinsmann Hired

On This Day in 2011, Klinsmann Became Head Coach of the U.S. Men's National Team

On July 29, Jürgen Klinsmann was named head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team, becoming the 35th coach in program history and marking the end of a tumultuous period that had seen American soccer reach a crossroads. Just days earlier, Bob Bradley had been dismissed following a devastating summer that culminated in a 4-2 loss to Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final, a defeat that came on the heels of a shocking first-round loss to Panama and a humiliating 4-0 rout by Spain in a June friendly. The losses had exposed what many saw as American soccer's stagnation, with critics arguing that while the U.S. had stood still, younger and more creative teams, such as Mexico, had surpassed them as the region's dominant force.

However, Klinsmann's path to becoming the architect of American soccer's revival began not in the boardrooms of U.S. Soccer, but on the streets and in the stadiums of Europe, where he had forged one of the most distinguished careers in international football. The baker's son from Göppingen, Germany, had scored 47 goals in 108 appearances for his national team, captaining Germany to the 1996 European Championship and playing a crucial role in their 1990 World Cup triumph. His playing career spanned four major European leagues, including starring roles at VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bayern Munich, establishing him as one of the most recognizable forwards of his generation.

After retiring following the 1998 World Cup, where he scored against the US in Germany's opening match, Klinsmann made an unexpected transition that would prove crucial to his future appointment in the United States. He moved to Southern California with his American wife Debbie and their children, spending more than a decade studying the American soccer landscape while building his coaching credentials. In 2004, he was named manager of the German National Team despite having no prior coaching experience. This bold gamble paid off spectacularly when he guided Germany to third place at the 2006 World Cup on home soil, earning Coach of the Year honors and revolutionizing German football with his emphasis on attacking play and youth development.

U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati had been pursuing Klinsmann for years, having unsuccessfully courted him after both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. Each time, negotiations had stalled over Klinsmann's demands for greater control over the entire American soccer program, not just the national team. Grahame Jones of the Los Angeles Times, reflecting on the appointment, noted that Klinsmann brought "credentials that none of the 34 coaches who preceded him had." At the same time, Alex Ferguson, then manager of Manchester United, had called Bradley's firing "disappointing," praising the dismissed coach as "a diligent and honest worker."

The appointment represented a seismic shift in American soccer philosophy. Unlike his predecessors, Steve Sampson, Bruce Arena, and Bob Bradley, Klinsmann brought the rare combination of elite playing experience and proven coaching success at the highest levels. His vision extended far beyond the national team itself; he had already expressed interest in reshaping America's entire youth development system and establishing a coherent playing style that reflected the country's multicultural identity. Klinsmann understood that "a kid in Mexico might do 20 hours of soccer a week - 4 training and 14 playing around with his buddies in the street," and he was determined to bridge that developmental gap.

When Klinsmann was introduced at a press conference in New York on August 1, he made clear his ambitious goals for American soccer. "There is nothing wrong with this team," he declared, expressing confidence in the foundation that had been built over the previous two decades. But he also acknowledged the magnitude of the challenge ahead, noting that developing a distinctive American style of play would require examining everything "from youth soccer to college, which is a model different from anywhere in the world."

Klinsmann's combination of international credibility, American residency, and transformational vision positioned him to tackle what many saw as the most difficult challenge in his storied career. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was just three years away, with regional qualifying set to begin in 2012. His first test would come immediately - a friendly against Mexico on August 10 in Philadelphia, the same opponent that had exposed the limitations of American soccer just weeks earlier. As his former assistant Joachim Löw predicted, "The way we know Jürgen, he'll go into the job with power and shake up a lot of things." For American soccer, that shake-up couldn't come soon enough.