U.S. Soccer “went out and recruited people to pay for” new men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino , a move that is “completely unheard of” in international soccer, according to Robinson & Bachman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The “biggest donation” for Pochettino’s reported $3M per year salary came from hedge-fund billionaire and Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who “agreed to make a multimillion-dollar gift to coax the biggest name available into a USA tracksuit.” The federation “connected with Griffin through another donor who was familiar with Griffin’s love of soccer and long history of donating to soccer causes,” including an $8M gift to build 100 mini-pitches in the Chicago and Miami areas. Leah Burton, who oversees U.S. Soccer’s major fundraising, said, “We know that winning is expensive. World-class coaches are expensive. ... We knew we would find a way to resource it somehow.” Robinson & Bachman reported another “major contribution” came from Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank, who donated $50M to fund construction of a national-team training center in Georgia . Courtney Reum, a 46-year-old venture capitalist, has also given $1M toward the training center. The “long-term goal is to increase U.S. Soccer’s annual revenue” to between $400M and $500M a year, up from $149M in 2023, with “about 25% of that coming from philanthropy” ( WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/13 ).
U.S. Soccer took 'unheard of' approach to fundraise Pochettino's salary
