U.S. men’s national soccer coach Gregg Berhalter nearly doubled his salary off World Cup bonuses, tax forms show.
Berhalter, who led the U.S. to the round of 16 in the 2022 World Cup, received $900,000 in bonuses off a base salary of roughly $1.3 million. In 2022, Berhalter made almost $2.3 million. The bonuses were based on “qualification and performance” at the World Cup, a U.S. Soccer Federation spokesperson told The Washington Post. Berhalter will coach the U.S. team for the ’26 World Cup, which will take place in North America.
Still, Berhalter’s bonuses tower over the ones received by then U.S. women’s coach Vlatko Andonovski, who made a base salary of just under $400,000 and received only a $15,000 bonus. The women’s team, historically superior to the men’s, underachieved under Andonovski, winning a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics and a round-of-16 appearance at the ’23 Women’s World Cup.
Andonovski stepped down shortly after the 2023 World Cup, and his ’23 earnings aren’t currently available. His replacement, Emma Hayes, will reportedly make $1.6 million a year, a record for a women’s soccer coach.
Equal compensation has been a years-long discussion in the soccer industry. A series of lawsuits by the women’s team led to a historic agreement in 2022. Hayes’s salary exceeds Berhalter’s ’22 base salary, but his new contract isn’t currently known. Former U.S. women’s team general manager Kate Markgraf earned $500,000 in ’22 compared to then men’s GM Brian McBride. He made $348,436 in ’22.
