ANPThomas Tuchel
NOS Voetbal•today, 10:33•Changed today, 10:40
Thomas Tuchel succeeds Gareth Southgate as England manager. The English Football Association FA has reached an agreement with the 51-year-old Tuchel, who will start on January 1, 2025. The Englishman Anthony Barry will act as assistant.
Tuchel, who helped Chelsea to the Champions League as a coach in 2021, becomes England’s first German-born national coach. After Sven-Göran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, he is the third foreign national coach ever for the English.
In addition to Chelsea, Tuchel was also coach of Mainz, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.
“I am very proud to have been given the honor of leading the England team,” said Tuchel. “I have long felt a personal connection with the game in this country and it has already given me some incredible moments.”
Lost final
Under the leadership of Southgate, who retired this summer, England lost the final of the European Championship to Spain (2-1) in July. Southgate’s England also reached the final at the European Championship in 2021, losing to Italy.
ANPGareth Southgate walks past the European Cup after the lost European Championship final
At the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the English reached the semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively. Over the years, his team’s play came under increasing criticism. It would be boring and defensive.
For the past two international matches, Lee Carsley served as interim coach for the England group. He will remain ultimately responsible until the end of the Nations League next month. Last week they lost to Greece (1-2) in the Nations League at Wembley and won in Finland (3-1).
Tuchel in Barry
Tuchel will work with Anthony Barry again in the England team. The two won a total of four trophies during their time together at Chelsea and Bayern.
At Mainz, Tuchel broke through into top football as a young coach. At Dortmund he became – together with Julian Nagelsmann from RB Leipzig – the face of a new generation of (German) top coaches.
PSG brought in Tuchel to take a shot at their first Champions League win ever with him. That mission failed, because in the summer of 2020, PSG lost the final of the tournament to Bayern Munich.
A few months later he was fired from the Parisian club, only to win the Champions League with Chelsea just over a year later.
His period at Bayern, where Tuchel started in 2023, ended in failure. Since his dismissal this summer, Tuchel has been without an employer.
