Inter Miami will have one of the rising head coaches at the helm ahead of the 2025 MLS season.
Javier Mascherano has been hired as the Herons new manager, the club announced Tuesday. Mascherano signed a three-year contract with Inter Miami, making the move from the Argentina U-20 and Olympic teams.
“This job requires somebody with the experience to be able to maximize our unique collection of talent – from our global superstars, to our burgeoning Homegrown players, to our young international prospects, and everything in between,” said Managing Owner Jorge Mas. “Javier has amassed unmatched experience in his career, from playing on the world’s biggest stages, to coaching at the youth international level; he has the blend of skills and experience we were looking for, and even has had direct coaching experience with Tomás Avilés, Facundo Farías, Federico Redondo, and Benjamin Cremaschi.
“We believe Javier is an important addition to our Club as we continue on our quest to be among the world’s elite, setting a new standard for fútbol in North America,” Mas added.
Mascherano took over the Argentina U-20 national team in December 2021 and proceeded to manage in multiple competitions. He led the Argentinian Olympic Team in Paris last summer, while also coaching at the 2023 U-20 FIFA World Cup, 2022 South American Games, and the 2023 South American U-20 Championship.
An Argentina star during his playing days, Mascherano is well known for his spells at English Premier League giants Liverpool and La Liga heavyweights Barcelona. He won two UEFA Champions League titles, five LaLiga titles, five Copa del Rey titles, two FIFA Club World Cups, two UEFA Super Cups and three Supercopa de España titles.
The San Lorenzo native earned 147 caps with Argentina, which are the second-most in the national team’s history. Lionel Messi, who Mascherano will manage in 2025, sits first with 191 caps.
Mascherano’s hiring by Inter Miami will reunite him with Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets, all of whom he played with at Barcelona.
Inter Miami lifted the 2024 Supporters’ Shield but were eliminated by Atlanta United in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
In other news ATL have picked up the option on Brad Guzan, those guys that still whine that Josh Cohen is the best American goalkeeper based entirely on they saw some highlights of him beating Juventus four years ago will have to wait another year.
What is happening in MLS
Tata Martino – “stepped down”
Whitecaps – Vanni Sartini let go
NYCFC – Nick Custing let go
FC Dallas – Nico Estévez let go
Earthquakes – part ways with Luchi Gonzalez.
The Union – part ways with Jim Curtin
……what in heavens name is going on. I mean I like the fact that teams are holding coaches accountable, especially since we have no relegation in the league, but damn, lol
MLS is getting like the big soccer leagues. Doing well or even better than expected isn’t good enough if you don’t win trophies. And, like with Curtin, one bad year can spell your doom. It’s a crazy business IMO.
That doesn’t feel like that many to me but you forgot Atlanta, Nashville, Austin, and Chicago. By my count that’s 10 which the same as last year. There were 10 the year before as well if you count the Revs firing Bruce and then Richie Williams the interim 3 days later. What amazes me is Caleb Porter has somehow survived.
In terms of “fit”, on paper, it’d probably be harder to do better.
But can the guy coach at all? “Fit” doesn’t matter if the guy can’t coach, or worse, can’t manage the egos in his locker room. And MLS is a uniquely tough gig in a lot of ways because there are all these different mechanisms for acquiring talent – DP’s, TAM, U22 Initiative, Young DP’s, homegrowns from the Academy, and even the MLS Superdraft, and in order to build a roster you have to have success with almost all of those and misses can absolutely kill you. Yeah, you’ve got four Barca stars over the age of 35, and they’re huge difference-makers…rock on. Now build out the rest of your roster, and it’d better be a deep roster, because guys over 35 are going to miss a fair number of games. And if you miss on something critical – like, you know, defenders, weird stuff can happen. Like, you know, a #9 seed fresh off a wild card playoff entry could actually end up embarrassing you. Crazy, I know, but it’s been known to happen in MLS.
This will either turn out to be a very canny move or a flop…anybody know anything about Mascherano’s reputation as a coach? And will he have good club structure around him? He seems very thin on club coaching experience and in MLS the games come at you fast and at long distances, and structuring your team to survive the travel and peculiarities of an MLS season is not a job for newblet unless he’s got a veteran staff to walk him through it.
What really keeps Miami’s model afloat though is bringing in young South American talent. Aviles and Rodondo played for with Argentina. Cremaschi, I believe was brought in by Javier to train ahead of the last U20 WC. Can Messi, Saurez, Busquets and Alba’s long time teammate command their coaching respect? Well they seemingly picked him so… He does have Chris Henderson to handle all that roster stuff so he should only have to worry about the on field stuff.