GOAL sat down with the PSV director of football to talk about the club, his past at U.S. Soccer, youth development and the World Cup

When it comes to perspectives of the U.S. men's national team, there probably isn't one as unique as Earnie Stewart's.

He featured in 101 games for the team from 1990-2004, going to three World Cups during his playing career. Stewart spent 18 seasons in the Netherlands, was voted the U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year in 2001 and was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2011. He also spent nearly three years as sporting director for the Philadelphia Union in MLS.

He then helped develop several of the current national team's biggest stars, serving as USMNT general manager and U.S. Soccer sporting director during a five-year stay with the federation. He left the U.S. in February 2023 to become director of football for PSV, and now oversees a club that features four USMNT players – all of whom have legitimate hopes of being on the USMNT on the road to 2026.

Because of that, Stewart's fingerprints are all over this USMNT program, even nearly two years after he left.

He's built his own little USMNT enclave at PSV, one featuring Ricardo Pepi, Malik Tillman, Sergino Dest and Richy Ledezma. PSV recently went back to the American well again to sign Bosnia international Esmir Bajraktarevic, the American-born New England Revolution rising star. Even from his office in the Netherlands, Stewart remains an influential figure in the American game.

GOAL caught up with Stewart to discuss his signings at PSV, his departure from U.S. Soccer, his thoughts on player development and how he remains the USMNT's biggest fan in the latest Wednesday Convo.

Getty ImagesON THE INFLUX OF AMERICAN PLAYERS AT PSV

GOAL: Obviously, PSV has a big group of American players in the squad. Was that intentional?

STEWART: It starts with the way that we want to play, and trying to find players that fit that and match that the way that we want to do that. I will say – and that's not only for myself, but that's probably for a lot of technical directors – once you know there's a market where you have a good understanding and have even worked with players, it does make it easier at the end to make sure that you can verify different aspects. No matter if it's just from a technical or tactical element, but also from a character standpoint, that does help in the end. In my case, because I worked, one, in MLS, but then also, two, for the national team, as we did our scouting throughout MLS, you learn a lot about the individual players that are there and the talent level that they have. That did help coming into PSV and those players that we thought had a certain talent level, but then it does certainly help to meld them as well.

GOAL: So was it more you going out looking for these players because of your knowledge, or did it just so happen that the right players were available at the right time?

STEWART: Having the background in the United States, being there seven and a half years, obviously your knowledge of those players that are in those leagues or around the national team, it's really good. You kind of fall back on those things that you know at the time. Especially at the beginning, when I got to PSV and we had certain American players on our list, it makes it easier to make that connection and everything. I guess it's normal for any technical director to lean back on the knowledge that he has from a certain period or from where he's been.

AdvertisementImagoON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CLUB AND COUNTRY

GOAL: Prior to moving to PSV, you spent several years with U.S. Soccer working on both the men's and women's side. Was there anything you could take from that role you can apply at PSV, and was there anything you took from your role with the Union that applied there?

STEWART: In some regards, it's different. You deal with agents on a daily basis now, which is something that with the national team was just sporadic. When you talk about high performance and how you want to train and the system that you want and the DNA that you have as an organization, the consistency, continuity… a lot of that is very similar in the way that I work. A club is different from a national team, obviously, but at the same time, the overall thought and how you want to run things, those are pretty much the same.

But then there are some elements that are just different. If I talk about something that I did take – especially from the national team and working with the board – at a club, if you want to change something, you change it the next day. But because there are so many other stakeholders within U.S. Soccer, all of a sudden, it's almost politics at one point. That is something that wasn't fun, but at the same time, it does help you along the way when you deal with certain situations where you have to take people with you to make sure that they make the right choice.

Getty ImagesON HIS DEPARTURE FROM U.S SOCCER

GOAL: You mentioned the politics, and I'm sure that was part of it. It was also the end of a World Cup cycle when you made the move back to PSV. Was that move motivated by one thing or a few different things?

STEWART: I'd say it was a combination of a lot of things. The first and probably the most important reason was that, from a personal standpoint, on my wife's side of the family, things were not looking up, so I made a choice for the family as well to go back and make sure that I was there to support at the times that are necessary.

From being in a World Cup and putting all of your efforts into it from one day, and then getting knocked out, that kind of took [a lot out of me]. How are you going to do this for another three and a half years, at that time, and the result could be the same in the end? I don't want to talk about a black hole or anything like that, but that was something that was at the top of my mind as well. The call came at a certain moment. I'd never worked with an elite club that played in the Champions League, and that Champions League hymn is something. It takes you, and you want to experience that as well. I'd say those three things.

In the end, I also have to be honest with the fact that, I still believe in certain ways of player development, and that is not something – as it was going – it's not something I totally believed in [in the U.S.]. I think that needs to change, and that is the difficult part of soccer in the United States and all the stakeholders that we have. But that's part of business, and also something that I, at least in my time, was trying to fight for.

AFPON WHAT'S NEEDED IN THE U.S. AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL

GOAL: You mentioned player development. You've worked on the outside of American soccer and on the inside. What needs to change? What needs to get better?

STEWART: I'll say that I've been gone for a while, and it's not top of my business every day when I step into the office. But, from another standpoint, I'd say when I look at the way that things are organized, I'd say there are still steps to be made. All the different stakeholders that there are and their way of developing within the landscape, there are all kinds of different sectors there.

I think everybody needs to come together and work as one, because, in the end, soccer is really, really simple, and development is really simple, apart from having really good coaches and all that kind of stuff. In the end, it's about the best being the best, and if you could create that in a training situation or a game situation, coupled with very good coaches, you're going to be in a really good place. That is still what I feel is a step that needs to be made.

GOAL: MLS has obviously made great strides. What are your thoughts on the players heading to Europe from MLS compared to the ones that did, say, 15 years ago?

STEWART: When I look at the U.S. landscape, MLS is doing a really good job. And why I say that is because every single team now has a youth academy, Back in the day when there was college and there was just a draft, it was just different. It was really difficult for European clubs to come and then see a league where they play three months and practice a couple of months before and then they get to a certain age. It also makes it difficult because they lack certain things for the European market, at least, and how they look at it.

Now that MLS has swooped in, development of talent is extremely important – and now you see that, college and the draft is mostly just the education route now. That makes it very interesting, because now all of a sudden, you see those players, young players, come through that have certain talent levels. It's like in Asia – how the United States is still a market where they haven't reached their peak yet. So I'm pretty sure the United States is a market for many clubs within Europe 1) because the talent level has to be there, and then 2) also because of their mentality.