“I’ve accepted challenges to prove myself,” Bradley said of his recently meandering coaching path.

Referring to a riot in 2012 that killed more than 70 people after a match between two Egyptian clubs, Bradley said, “When I was in Egypt, after Port Said, people asked me: ‘Why are you still here? Why didn’t you leave?’ Then I went to Norway, to this small team, and people would say, ‘Why did you come?’ ”

It is a question, Bradley conceded, that he hears regularly.

“What it amounts to is, this part of you — on the inside — wants to show people what you can do,” he said. “You want to prove yourself. You want a chance.”

A native of New Jersey, Bradley, 57, spent the first three decades of his coaching career in the United States, in college, in M.L.S. and, finally, with the national team. In 2011, after a disheartening loss to Mexico cost him his job, Bradley and his wife, Lindsay, moved to Cairo before the January 25 Revolution and before the riot in Port Said, one the worst soccer stadium disasters in history.

His Egypt team lost just once on the long road to the 2014 World Cup, but that was enough to spoil its dreams of qualifying. “It was a disappointment,” Bradley said, that “sticks with you forever.”

A few months later, he arrived in Norway to take charge of Stabaek, a small, recently promoted club that was only just emerging from a financial meltdown. Bradley spent two years there, taking the team to a cup semifinal, a third-place finish in the league and, with it, a qualification spot for next season’s Europa League.

Yet despite Bradley’s successes, he faced an employment landscape that offered few opportunities for him in top European leagues. “In England, they talk about having Premier League experience,” Bradley said, “and, to be fair, I don’t have it.”