Henry Bushnell

Senior ⚽ writer, @TheAthletic.

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Signal: henrybushnell.03

[Henry Bushnell @HenryBushnell]

Now official: Mauricio Pochettino is back.

Contract agreed with U.S. Soccer through 2030.

More — including comments from Poch on his approach to a second cycle with the USMNT — here and free to read @TheAthleticFC: https://t.co/kbkUNjnuxB

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

The grand announcement was supposed to come on the eve of the World Cup final at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

Gianni Infantino had come up with a plan to sell a stake in FIFA’s competitions to private investors, including Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared.

Infantino decided to delay the announcement, which was expected to be rolled out during the past week.

Instead, the news was revealed elsewhere. It threw a grenade into the rollout, which culminated in boycott threats.

FIFA and Infantino have now rowed back on the plan.

This is the inside story of how and why the idea came together, the failed rollout and where this leaves Infantino, with possible challengers seriously considering battling him for his throne.

✍️ @AdamCrafton_, @JamesHorncastle and @megan_feringa

🔗 https://t.co/841767o8JQ

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s senior advisor Carlos Cordeiro has resigned due to his opposition to plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

Cordeiro, 70, had been in the role for five years following a career in investment banking.

He described FIFA’s proposals as “a bad deal for FIFA’s Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game.”

More from @AliRampling and @Dan_Sheldon_

🔗 https://t.co/AKBxrq5RS5

[Adam Crafton @AdamCrafton_]

Source with knowledge of CONCACAF call says “vast majority” of its federations losing or lost confidence in Infantino. A second person considered that to be a slightly stronger description of the meeting than they took away, but he’s in bother here.

https://t.co/dwfuzTSpkk

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

European nations have agreed to boycott the World Cup over FIFA���s plans to sell stakes in the tournament to private investors.

The decision was taken at a virtual meeting of the 55 national associations which are members of UEFA, the European football confederation, on Thursday, according to sources with knowledge of the meeting.

The next World Cup in the calendar is the women’s edition in Brazil next summer, followed by the men’s tournament in Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 2030.

More from @JamesHorncastle & @megan_feringa

🔗 https://t.co/HHwiQGw5mr

[Tom Bogert @tombogert]

🇺🇸 Sources: Mauricio Pochettino is close to continuing as USMNT head coach. @AndresCantorGOL 1st. Would be 4 year deal.

Talks with U.S. Soccer progress and in a good place. Not done yet.

w/ @PaulTenorio @HenryBushnell @David_Ornstein https://t.co/cnaCH2Ty8L

[Henry Bushnell @HenryBushnell]

From ticketing to the halftime show, FIFA made the 2026 World Cup an intensely American one.

The question, now, is whether it will try to make some of these changes/choices permanent...

Here, free to read @TheAthletic, is a first attempt to answer:

https://t.co/QfS0eMh42U

[Paul Tenorio @PaulTenorio]

MLS says it's ready to "take it from here." But is it?

Examining MLS's post-World Cup path forward.

Part 1: The podcast version - https://t.co/YuDpJq9aHz

Part 2: The Athletic feature - https://t.co/gkR4ySYwGk

Part 3: The book - https://t.co/6fpkEFnv1M

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

▪️ Did the best team win?
▪️ Was Folarin Balogun’s overturned suspension, Iran’s treatment, or the banned referee the worst moment?
▪️ Which ‘new’ player impressed most?
▪️ Who will win in 2030?

With the World Cup now over, we asked 14 of our writers to deliver their verdicts on the 2026 tournament.

🔗 https://t.co/9OD8Nw8y1c

[Paul Tenorio @PaulTenorio]

The ’94 World Cup influenced a generation of Americans. What will 2026’s impact be?

“It’s been a terrific 39 days, but bringing the Cup to the U.S. has always been about: What does it do to accelerate the growth of the game? So it’s Monday that matters.”

https://t.co/Wst147Ddsq

[Henry Bushnell @HenryBushnell]

Brilliant column. @JerryBrewer sums up the World Cup like only he can.

It's such a powerful event. And an exclusive, problematic one... but the "problems were never in charge."

The people who give it its power — players, the masses, basically everyone not wearing a suit — won

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Something would threaten the 2026 World Cup — a visa denied or some bluster from the United States government; a preposterous cost that no fan should have to pay or an officiating controversy; a geopolitical standoff or a sky turned the color of bruises that refuse to heal — and the World Cup would forge ahead in splendour.

This tournament didn’t eliminate its threats. It just wasn’t stopped by them.

The world’s greatest sporting obsession has that much power.

📝 @JerryBrewer

https://t.co/RO9RRvjDQB

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

As he walked down the tunnel, nostalgia for a vanishing world set in.

What will the World Cup be like without Lionel Messi?

His sixth and likely last was mostly astonishing. When visas were revoked and red cards suspended he brought us back to football, delivering the World Cup from FIFA’s many sins.

Gianni Infantino can keep adding teams, but one thing is for sure. A World Cup without Messi will always feel less than whole.

📝 @JamesHorncastle

https://t.co/fpp0cRC4dM

[Emily Giambalvo @EmilyGiam]

How much did it cost to attend the 2026 World Cup?

Seven fans shared itemized expenses from their trips!

story w/ @yuriko_a_s

[Henry Bushnell @HenryBushnell]

Here's Paul's piece.

And there's so much more in his book, The Messi Effect, which you should go buy and dive into no matter what happens Sunday.

https://t.co/bC1llTKTMV

[Henry Bushnell @HenryBushnell]

Critics said Messi came to MLS to essentially retire.

At Inter Miami, they quickly realized that was so far from the truth. And now the whole world is realizing.

@PaulTenorio, who literally wrote the book on Messi, tells that story — ft. this anecdote from a preseason friendly

[Adam Crafton @AdamCrafton_]

Not much love for MetLife Stadium during this tournament, so here’s the whole backstory on why FIFA chose New York (and New Jersey) for final ahead of Dallas, LA and Mexico City. It’s a long story which includes a video voiced over by Robert De Niro.

https://t.co/m0gxp2kK9h

[Kevin Quealy @KevinQ]

New today at @TheAthletic is a project I've wanted to do as long as I've been watching sports on television.

It's a collection of the full spectrum of raw emotion on display at the World Cup, told only through fan reactions in the stands.

Here's anxiety, via "hands on head:"

[Joshua Kloke @joshuakloke]

This was my seven-year-old son’s first World Cup. And it warped his reality of what’s possible in the game he loves.

At the behest of editors, I watched the World Cup through his eyes and didn’t want to stop seeing what he did.
Unlocked at @TheAthleticFC
https://t.co/RuZxEj47mb

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Lionel Messi had made relatively little impact on the game. There were moments of skill and invention — there are always those moments — but England’s defenders had contained his threat.

And then, as against Egypt last week, Messi took control.

He didn’t score either goal, but he made them both, drawing defenders too him and picking out an unmarked Enzo Fernandez to score from distance for the equaliser and then producing a wonderful cross — with his right foot, no less — to pick out Lautaro Martinez for the winner.

People used to say of Messi that he couldn’t deliver for Argentina when the pressure was on. What a joke that sounds like now.

📝 @OliverKay

https://t.co/7VD60KqY2x

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Argentina vs. England is a rivalry built around emotions, tensions, controversies and bitter feuds.

On the pitch, it revolves around the World Cup quarter-finals in 1986 in which Diego Maradona scored perhaps the most controversial and then the most beautiful goal in the competition’s history in the space of four minutes.

But the enmity dates back to 1966 — Argentina players described as “animals” by England manager Alf Ramsey after a bad-tempered World Cup quarter-final.

There was no fewer than 56 fouls in 90 minutes.

📝 @OliverKay, @JamesHorncastle & @AdamCrafton_

🔗 https://t.co/oc1P6dB20I