U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker exits post months before 2026 FIFA World Cup

Getty Images

Matt Crocker left his role as U.S. Soccer's sporting director months before the World Cup, causing another round of disarray in the federation's leadership ranks during an important period for both the men's and women's national teams.

Crocker, a native of Wales, was hired by U.S. Soccer in 2023 to oversee all of the federation's national teams. He exited the post to pursue another opportunity in the world of international soccer, the executive reportedly set to take up a similar role with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation according to Fox Sports.

"Over the past several years, U.S. Soccer has grown significantly across every part of our sporting organization, and we thank Matt for the role he played in that progress," U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson said in a statement on Tuesday. "Matt helped guide important steps across our sporting organization, and we're grateful for his contributions. We're confident in our strategy, leadership team, coaches, and technical staff. We will continue building the right structure for the future, and we're well positioned to make the decisions needed in the short, medium, and long term."

Dan Helfrich, U.S. Soccer's chief operating officer who joined the federation in January, will have executive oversight over the sporting department following Crocker's departure. He will work closely with assistant sporting director Oguchi Onyewu, a former USMNT player, and head of development for the women's youth national team Tracey Kevins as they absorb Crocker's responsibilities.

Crocker's three-year tenure in the U.S. will be defined by a batch of coaching hires. He led the process to re-hire Gregg Berhalter to lead the USMNT in June 2023, doing so before his official start date that August. Following the USWNT's disappointing round of 16 exit at the 2023 Women's World Cup, the federation hired Emma Hayes that November and made her one of the highest-paid coaches in the history of the women's game. After Berhalter's firing in July 2024, Crocker landed the signature of his ex-Southampton colleague Mauricio Pochettino, who became the highest-paid coach in U.S. Soccer's history.

After those hires were complete, Crocker unveiled the U.S. Way in January 2025, a new strategy around national youth development. One hallmark of the vision was Crocker's plan for the federation to provide more support to clubs, arguing that 95% of player development happens in those settings. He also played a sizable role in developing the federation's National Training Center in the suburbs of Atlanta, the $200 million-plus facility that will open next month and house the USMNT for the first phase of their pre-World Cup training camp.

U.S. Soccer's vision in question again

Crocker's departure may not directly impact the USMNT, the final stages of World Cup-bound teams usually stewarded by head coaches like Pochettino rather than sporting departments. His exit, though, cracks open a wide range of questions, new and old.

The first big item on his successor's agenda is likely to be finding Pochettino's replacement. The head coach's deal expires following the World Cup and though he has theoretically suggested he would be open to staying in the role, it is widely expected he will not continue. The onus is on U.S. Soccer to hire Crocker's replacement somewhat quickly since the USMNT's coach after the 2026 World Cup will likely be tasked with setting a new tone as the long road to the 2030 tournament begins, no matter how things shake out on home soil this summer.

A coach does not necessarily need to be in place for the first-post World Cup friendly window from Sept. 20 to Oct. 5, though the federation has a track record of dragging the process out with USMNT hires in recent years, thanks to administrative issues. Berhalter's re-hire in June 2023 came six months after his last deal expired, a process that stretched longer because of an investigation into a decades-old domestic violence at the center of Berhalter's feud with Claudio and Danielle Reyna, former U.S. internationals and parents of current USMNT player Gio Reyna. Berhalter was cleared but that deal was also held up by a leadership change at U.S. Soccer – Ex-sporting director Earnie Stewart left the job in January 2023, while Crocker was not hired until April of that year and did not formally start until August. Before that, a wide-ranging leadership shakeup after the USMNT's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup meant it took the federation a year to initially hire Berhalter in December 2018.

The same could be true sooner rather than later for the USWNT since it is unclear how long Hayes intends to be in the job following the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil.

Beyond that, Crocker is the latest person to build a youth development program for U.S. Soccer that may fall to the wayside following his departure. Youth development has been a contentious topic for almost everyone in American soccer circles for decades in both the men's and women's game, but especially so since the USMNT missed out on the 2018 World Cup. It is too early to gauge the success of Crocker's program but youth development is essentially the lifeblood of any program, so any amount of deprioritization – or another re-jig of an operation American soccer's power brokers have yet to properly figure out – would be impactful to the national teams, ranging anywhere from potentially stunting growth to finally making progress.