Mauricio Pochettino has been placed on Real Madrid’s shortlist of managerial candidates for next season, with sources telling ESPN that the Argentine is one of the coaches most highly regarded by club president Florentino Perez as Los Blancos prepare for an overhaul in the summer.
Pochettino has always had unfinished business with Madrid. When Zinedine Zidane left the Bernabeu in 2018, Pochettino was the man Perez wanted, but a promise made to Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy to stay until the opening of their new stadium blocked the move.
He has spoken about it openly since.
“I don’t know how Florentino took it. It wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t out of contract. But it’s never too late if the luck is right,” he said in an interview last year, as reported by Goal.
The luck may finally be right. Current Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa, who was brought in after Xabi Alonso’s departure in January, is not expected to stay beyond the summer unless he pulls off something extraordinary between now and the end of the season.
Madrid have been evaluating the market, and Pochettino’s name has come up repeatedly in those conversations.
The Argentine is understood to be open to the job, but not unconditionally. He wants assurances over recruitment, specifically two world-class centre-backs and a dominant central midfielder brought in before he commits.
This demand aligns with what Madrid’s own scouting department has already identified as the squad’s most pressing needs heading into next season.
His current contract as USMNT head coach runs through this summer’s World Cup, which kicks off in June, making any club appointment impossible before July at the earliest. Madrid are prepared to wait.
