Since his tenure with the US national team ended five years ago, Bob Bradley has been an intrepid world traveler, blazing a unique path from the Egyptian national team to Stabæk in Norway to Le Havre in France, where he currently coaches.
But despite all of his lofty overseas ambitions, Bradley said this week that he would certainly consider a return to his home country and a job coaching in MLS “if the right opportunity comes along.”
“Look, I’m a product of the game in the United States,” Bradley said in an interview with ESPN’s Marc Stein and Steve Davis on their Soccer Today podcast. “As I told you, I stay very connected with what’s happening there. … I have strong ideas. If the right situation came up, where those kind of ideas can be put into action, then it’s something I’d think about. But I’m also of course motivated to continue to prove myself in Europe.”
Bradley has deep ties to MLS, beginning as an assistant for D.C. United in the league’s inaugural season 20 years ago. He went on to be the head coach of the Chicago Fire, the MetroStars and Chivas USA before being tasked to lead the US national team in 2006.
In the podcast, Bradley said it’s not his place to comment, at least publicly, on the USMNT. But he added that he enjoyed watching some Copa America Centenario games in person this summer and that he’s usually awake “at strange hours watching MLS games.” Bradley’s son, Michael, is the captain of the US national team and Toronto FC, but the former USMNT and MLS coach naturally has many other connections to American soccer.
“I have a pretty good idea what’s goes on,” he said. “I have some really good friends that are still working in the league. In many cases, it’s guys that either played for me or guys I coached with that I stay in touch with. So you know, I enjoy keeping up with what’s going on in MLS and of course watching our national team whenever they’re playing.”
Also in the interview, Bradley discussed some of the challenges playing and coaching overseas and how you “you have do a little more to try to prove yourself” in Europe. You can listen to the whole podcast on iTunes.
