Weston McKennie scored in a 6-0 United States win over Haiti on Saturday, one of his last games under the coach who is already thinking about signing him again at club level. Mauricio Pochettino is due in Manchester this week to take over a Premier League side sitting in the relegation zone, and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Juventus midfielder he has leaned on hardest with the USMNT is first on his January list.

The Argentine was appointed Manchester United head coach on a contract through the summer of 2029. He succeeds Michael Carrick, who was sacked a day earlier after one league win in 10 matches left United 18th in the table with eight points, their worst start to a top-flight season in 40 years.

Juventus already bolted the door

McKennie, 28, signed a new contract with Juventus on 2 March that runs through June 2030, roughly a decade after he joined the club from Schalke. The extension lifted his salary from €2.5m to €4m a year and tied him down for four more seasons with no option built in.

He had also just rediscovered his best form. Since Luciano Spalletti took charge in October 2025, McKennie has been used across midfield and even as a makeshift striker, a versatility Pochettino has copied in his USMNT setup.

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Carnevali’s red line

Any approach would land on the desk of Giovanni Carnevali, who became Juventus CEO in June after more than a decade running Sassuolo. Carnevali has repeatedly said no Juventus player is strictly “unsellable” if the valuation is right.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, picked up in English by Yahoo Sports, nonetheless reports it would take a “monstrous” offer to prise McKennie out of Turin, and that the midseason window makes a deal especially difficult. Neither club has publicly commented on the rumour.

The USMNT bond Pochettino is leaning on

The Pochettino-McKennie dynamic has not been uncomplicated. McKennie was left out of the USMNT squad for the September international window before returning in October, with Pochettino citing a disrupted preseason at Juventus. He has started in both the October and November camps and headed home a corner in Saturday’s 6-0 rout of Haiti in Miami, part of Pochettino’s farewell programme before he hands the national team over.

Pochettino begins work at Carrington next week, with his new employers reportedly ready to back him in the January window rather than wait until the summer. McKennie is expected to rejoin Juventus for their next Serie A home fixture against Venezia on 22 November.

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