Jesse Marsch first managerial role back could reportedly come on the international level.
Marsch has been linked with the South Korea men’s national team’s managerial vacancy, Sports Chosun reported Monday. The former Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig, and Leeds United boss would succeed former U.S. men’s national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who was fired last February.
The 50-year-old is one of three finalists for the position, according to the report.
Marsch has been out of coaching since being fired as Leeds United boss in February 2023. He has served as a pundit for CBS Sports Soccer during the 2024 season, while also appearing on UK’s Sky Sports broadcasts.
After making the move to Europe in 2019, Marsch won back-to-back domestic doubles with Red Bull Salzburg in Austria. He later moved to RB Leipzig in July 2021, but only lasted as manager in Germany for five months.
Marsch moved to Elland Road in February 2022 and helped Leeds United avoid relegation from the English Premier League that season. However, the 2022-23 campaign was a disappointment for Marsch and the Lilywhites, as they later were relegated following Marsch’s departure in February.
He had been linked with several club openings over the past year including AS Monaco, Leicester City, and Southampton, but decided to remain out of work.
South Korea dropped to No. 23 in the April FIFA Rankings and continue its World Cup Qualifying schedule this June.
Marsch is a good for S Korea. He likes a high pressing team and the Koreans are generally willing hard workers. Korea also has a couple good attackers.
Marsch ‘s international experience was as Bradley’s assistant.
Marsch is very competitive and his hard approach will, I think, play well in Korea
Marsch is ready to get back to work, but it’s interesting that only NT’s are options for him at this time.
Or is that just what interests him? Reports were he really wanted the USMNT job so what better proof of concept than to lead another NT. Perhaps based on fall results he thought maybe Gregg would be let go after NL. Once he won Jesse saw it was going to be a longer wait.
JR,
Jesse is an international virgin, like Gregg before him. And like Gregg, at the beginning, Marsch’s instincts are more suited to a club setting.
But Jesse needs to wash the stink of Leeds off of him. His next “project” needs to be a successful one.
South Korea are a very good squad arguably as talented as the USMNT if not more so. If they get a decent draw in 2026, they could make a lot of noise. If these reports are true and he does get offered the job, he could do a lot worse than take it. It would be a chance for him to show the USSF that they chose the wrong tactically naive ex-MLS manager.
I don’t see any EPL or BL jobs for him any time soon.
@Vacqui
If this was intended to be a slight on Greg, then I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up that being “tactically naive” is the epitome of what Marsch was at Leeds, and even further, Marsch was also an ex-MLS manager before Greg was! If you’re going to seemingly make the case of Greg vs Jesse, I don’t think it makes sense to leave out that both suffer from the same, equitable criticisms
“Marsch was also an ex-MLS manager before Greg was!”
?? Yeah. No shit. Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Jesse left NYRB to learn his trade better at RB Leipzig. One reason American coaches rarely get jobs in Europe is because they have no experience in club management in Europe. Serving a two year apprenticeship as an assistant with RB Leipzig is a pretty sharp idea.. It’s probably why he continues to improbably fail upward. It looks like he spent the time developing a strong network of contacts.
That’s how he got the Leeds job.
“If you’re going to seemingly make the case of Greg vs Jesse, I don’t think it makes sense to leave out that both suffer from the same, equitable criticisms. ”
Wrong. Both are flawed but in different ways. And most of the “world’ knows this. There is a guy here, JR, and he has made the point that Jesse wanted the USMNT job when it looked like Gregg might not be re-hired. I doubt that JR made that up just to fit his narrative. That’s IV’s schtick.
In his recent role as a “pundit” Jesse has made a bunch of comments that could be construed as being unkind towards Gregg. The suggestion has been made that Gregg is not filled with peace, love and happiness when he looks at Jesse.
If you need context, this sniping in the media is exactly what Arena did just before he replaced JK and what JK did just before he replaced Bob.
It’s something of an American tradition.
My stance on Gregg is well known but at this point replacing him with Jesse makes no sense. Jesse, who gave us the coachable Brenden, is not the answer so why waste the time and effort? He’s starting to give off a whiff of bullshit. And there’s already plenty of that around the USMNT.
The USMNT are at a point where they have an occasionally attractive team with some occasionally attractive players. Most of the players are presentable and most of them make for good copy. They are good enough to be potentially dangerous if everything falls into place but will always have a good excuse when they lose. The USMNT is always about making excuses.
There are better managers than Gregg out there but the USSF will either not pay the money or will not put the effort into researching and finding a lesser known better manager that does not cost 10 million /year.. MLS likes things as they are. If it it hasn’t already occurred to you the USSF is not about putting together the best team possible, or winning legit trophies. I mean, they wouldn’t mind winning the World Cup. But they aren’t going to put a lot of time and money into it. Too much work.
The important thing is MLS. That’s where people can make money. And it is always about money. The USMNT is a promotional tool for MLS. And it does a great job of that. But sporting excellence? Best team in the world? No way. I see nothing in the USSF that indicates they care about that sort of thing.
They care about perpetuating their existence by attaining some sort of competitive status, which is a very different thing. Look at that most American of all sporting institutions, the NFL. Everyone, even their incredibly awful teams, makes money hand over fist. That’s the aim of MLS and their running dogs.
Sounds like South Korea is moving faster than Canada. Apparently Canada was trying to woo Mourinho and Lampard but got told very quickly they weren’t interested. Not sure how they thought it would work, going from missing friendly windows because they didn’t have money to fund them to trying to hire guys who demand salaries above $10 million dollars a year. David, Davies, and Buchanan are dynamic stars but guys aren’t coming for free for them.