Mauricio Pochettino has reportedly agreed to become the next USMNT head coach, but he won’t take over right away.

The next USMNT games are just less than a month away, so U.S. Soccer is planning to give Pochettino a little more time to settle in and let an interim take over those games against Canada and New Zealand. According to ESPN, The Washington Post, and The Athletic, that person is Mikey Varas.

Many USMNT fans will be unfamiliar with the name Varas, but Varas is familiar with USMNT and U.S. Soccer is general. Hs is a former U.S. U-20 coach and was an assistant for the USMNT under Gregg Berhalter, recently having worked during this summer’s Copa América.

Who is he, and how did he become so involved with U.S. Soccer? Well, here is his story.

Varas was born in Burlingame, California to parents of Chilean descent. As a player, he played four years at the University of San Francisco and trained in Chile for a season with the CD Santiago Wanderers, before eventually shifting to focus on coaching.

He studied at clubs in Argentina, Italy, and Spain before coming back to his hometown, launching his coaching career with Burlingame Soccer Club.

Varas later worked with the Sacramento Republic academy and was named U.S. Soccer Development Academy West Conference U-14 Coach of the Year for the 2016-17 season. Because of his impressive work with the youth, he got the attention of MLS teams and joined FC Dallas in 2017, where he became head coach of the U-16 team. 

He became close with then-academy director Luchi González, a fellow American with South American heritage. When Luchi became FC Dallas head coach in 2018, Varas also climbed up the ladder to become an assistant of Luchi González.

In 2021, he got a big offer from U.S. Soccer, to become the head coach of the U.S. U-20s and help the team qualify to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. It was too good of an opportunity to turn down for Varas, who enjoys working with youth teams. It was also a challenge he had been waiting for.

The coach did a fantastic job with the U.S. U-20s, a team that also had a lot of talent. He helped the U.S. U-20s win the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in 2022— where they scored 31 goals while conceding only twice in seven games. This meant he qualified them for the U-20 World Cup in 2023 and the Olympics in 2024.

Varas was also in charge during the U-20 World Cup, where the U.S. reached the quarterfinal beating Ecuador, New Zealand, Slovakia, and Fiji without conceding any goals. 

They got knocked out by losing 2-0 to Uruguay, who went on to win the tournament so there is nothing to be ashamed about. However, surprisingly, he became an assistant of Berhalter for the USMNT later that year instead of being given a role with the U-23s to work in the Olympics. The U-19s coach Marko Mitrović was given that role instead.

Mitrović did a decent job this summer in France, helping the U.S. reach the knockout stage of the Olympics for the first time since 2000. However, we can only wonder how the team would’ve performed had Varas been in charge.

Now with Berhalter gone, Varas’ future with U.S. Soccer is up in the air. He is going to stick around for a bit though, taking over the USMNT on an interim basis for the next two games.

The first game is going to be spicy, as he will take charge in a rivalry game against Canada— led by no other than Jesse March, an American who once was an assistant coach and player for the USMNT.

Marsch was reportedly close to becoming the USMNT head coach last year, before the job went to Berhalter. So he will be eager to prove U.S. Soccer wrong by beating the USMNT in their backyard. It may just be a friendly but for Varas, he will feel some pressure from fans and his bosses to not lose to Marsch’s Canada.

The next game might be a little easier. Varas will be facing New Zealand, the same country he beat 4-0 in the U-20 World Cup last year. 

The U.S. also beat New Zealand 4-1 in the Olympics this summer. The senior New Zealand team will feature a couple players from those games, and they will be hungry for revenge after two humiliating losses.

Varas is a good coach, with a proven track record in working with the youth. In addition to his U.S. Soccer “A” Coaching License, Varas is fluent in Spanish and holds a Master’s degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Physical Education from Fresno Pacific University.

He will be hoping to get good results in this temporary role, which can land him a good head coaching role elsewhere or maybe become a part of Pochettino’s coaching staff for the 2026 home World Cup.