Sources told ESPN that Real Madrid has placed Mauricio Pochettino on its shortlist of candidates to succeed Alvaro Arbeloa next season.
The Spanish giants have already begun exploring the coaching market ahead of a summer expected to see major structural changes that could also affect several key figures in the transfer market.
Jurgen Klopp, Unai Emery, and Massimiliano Allegri have all been linked to the club recently, while other sources maintain that Zinedine Zidane’s return remains president Florentino Perez’s top priority.
It is unlikely that Zidane will take over at Real Madrid, having already reached a final agreement to coach the French national team, succeeding Didier Deschamps after the 2026 World Cup.
Reports indicate that the club’s management is currently evaluating various candidates to lead the new sporting project, and that Pochettino is one of the coaches highly regarded by Perez.
This comes at a time when the Argentine coach has been strongly linked with a return to Tottenham this summer, despite his former club’s disastrous season and their struggle to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
The current US national team coach – whose contract expires after the World Cup – was previously linked with the Real Madrid job after leading Tottenham to the Champions League final in 2019.
Pochettino, who knows La Liga well from his playing days, has extensive experience managing big-name players during his time at Tottenham, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea.
