Former Crystal Palace coach and Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira is interested in the vacant United States head coach position, sources have told ESPN.
Sources added that the United States Soccer Federation had been in contact with Vieira, but talks had not progressed after the initial approach.
Other coaches are also in competition, but Vieira is keen on the challenge of taking over the job last held full-time by Gregg Berhalter.
After studying the United States’ recent results and the current squad line-up, the 1998 World Cup winner with France said there was great potential there and wanted the chance to take the team on a journey to the 2026 World Cup.
Patrick Vieira left Palace in March amid a string of poor results and the team in danger of relegation after going winless for 12 games in a row.
He also coached New York City FC in MLS from 2016 to 2018 and Ligue 1 club Nice from 2018 to 2020 before taking a job at Palace.
Previous United States coach Anthony Hudson, who took charge of the interim team in January after Berhalter’s contract expired after the World Cup, stepped down at the end of May and was replaced by caretaker BJ Callaghan.
Berhalter has been in limbo since late 2022 and after an investigation into domestic violence allegations against him from 1992 involving his wife, Rosalind, while they were students at the University of North Carolina.
The investigation concluded that Berhalter responded truthfully throughout the investigation, confirming that the incident occurred, with the USSF stating that Berhalter was still a candidate to continue in his post as US manager.
A US Soccer spokesperson told ESPN last month that “nothing has changed” regarding Berhalter’s candidacy.
On Tuesday, ESPN reported that Club America and Sparta Rotterdam were considering Berhalter for their coaching vacancies.
USSF, which appointed Matt Crocker as sporting director in April, said it would appoint a permanent head coach in August.
The US will play Mexico in Thursday night’s Nations League semifinals in Las Vegas, with the winner playing either Canada or Panama in the final.
Speaking ahead of the game against Mexico, CBS broadcaster and former US star Clint Dempsey took issue with the amount of time it would take USSF to name its next coach.
“I think they need to hurry up and make that decision because we’re running out of time,” Dempsey said. “I think we took too long in terms of appointing our sporting director and we took too long in terms of appointing our manager, because time is of the essence.”
