Thomas Tuchel confirmed as next England manager from 2025

Jonathan Victoria • 16 Oct 2024 Features

The search is over!

England has confirmed Thomas Tuchel as the next incumbent England manager, with the former Chelsea, PSG and Bayern Munich manager taking the position in January 2025.

The German becomes the third foreign head coach of the Three Lions after the late Sven-Goran Eriksson (2001-2006) and Fabio Capello (2007-2012).

Current interim England boss Lee Carsley will remain in charge of the team for the final international break this year in November before Tuchel officially takes charge from 1st January 2025. 

Tuchel’s first comments since the announcement displays a happy man, with him saying:

“I am very proud to have been given the honour of leading the England team. I have long felt a personal connection to the game in this country, and it has given me some incredible moments already. To have the chance to represent England is a huge privilege, and the opportunity to work with this special and talented group of players is very exciting.”

Tuchel in England

Tuchel is no stranger to English football, having overseen the tricky Chelsea job for a short time from January 2021 to September 2022.

His relatively short tenure with the Blues coincided with the period of instability and new beginnings for the team, seeing previous owner Roman Abramovich essentially frozen out before selling the club to the Todd Boehly-led consortium, who he eventually fell out with which led to his dismissal.

Tuchel spoke of his fondness for working in England and the Premier League shortly after his Chelsea departure, so it seemed as though a return was always on the cards - although the national team job was likely not in his thoughts at that time.

The German was able to make the most of his time with Chelsea, though, coming in midway through the season and guiding them to their second Champions League title, beating Manchester City 1-0 in the 2021 final.

Credit: Tuchel Cam | Chelsea Boss Celebrates Champions League Success With Family In Porto (TNT Sports, YouTube)

He also helped guide them to the FA Cup final that season, where they lost 1-0 to Leicester, and a fourth-place finish in the Prem. He would go on to win the UEFA Super Cup later in the year.

The following season saw more opportunities for silverware, helping Chelsea to the EFL Cup and FA Cup finals, both of which they lost to Liverpool on penalties, plus Club World Cup glory, a first-time honour for the club.

Unfortunately, the Club World Cup victory was shortly followed by the sanctions on Abramovich, and subsequently Boehly arrival during the summer. Things became messy for Chelsea during 2022, but Tuchel seemed to be the easy scapegoat, with his dismall coming later in the year.

He left the club having overseen exactly 100 games, with a record of 63 wins, 18 losses and 19 draws.

Previous roles

Tuchel has had a number of top roles throughout his managerial career and has been able to oversee periods of success which each of them.

His playing career was cut short at the age of 25 die to a knee cartilage injury suffered in 1998 but he quickly returned to football in a coaching role in 2000, taking a position as youth team coach at Vfb Stuttgart under the tutelage of Ralf Rangnick, former Manchester United manager.

He left the club for Augsburg in 2005, holding the position of coordinator for three years before becoming the first team coach for FC Augsburg II for one solitary season in 2007/08.

He moved to Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga, where he would remain for five years. He brought them spells in the Europa League as well as multiple top-10 finishes.

He would leave at the conclusion of the 2013/14 season, he requested to be let out of his contract. He spent a year on the sideline before returning to managing, being given the role of Borussia Dortmund manager, taking over from the outbound Jurgen Klopp.

With big shoes to fill, Tuchel found some success with the club, winning the DFB-Pokal for his first major honour - but also his only honour with the club. He was dismissed three days after their victory in May 2017, due in part to a strained relationship with the club’s CEO.

 

 

 

 

 

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After another year out of a job, he took on his biggest role yet, taking over from Unai Emery at PSG in May 2018.

With the French heavyweights, he oversaw the permanent transfer of soon-to-be megastar Kylian Mbappe, as well as more silverware, starting with the Trophee des Champions in August.

His time at PSG saw him win the domestic quadruple in the 2019/20 season (Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France), as well as a Champions League final, which they lost to Bayern Munich.

The 2020/21 season was to be his last with PSG, with him being dismissed on 24th December 2020. He would quickly find work again with Chelsea, assuming that role on 26th January 2021.

After being let go of his role with Chelsea in September 2022, he spent a few months away before assuming the Bayern Munich job in March 2023, successfully seeing through the season with an 11th consecutive Bundesliga title.

The next season would be his first and only full season in charge, the 2023/24 campaign seeing a plucky Bayer Leverkusen side end Bayern’s league dominance. It was also the first season since the 2010/11 campaign that they failed to win any trophies.

Carsley & co miss out

Speculation over who would take the national team job has raged on even before Gareth Southgate’s departure shortly after England’s loss to Spain in the Euro’s final this summer, with many names thrown out there as to who could take over.

Current Newcastle boss Eddie Howe was the leading candidate it seemed, while former England stars turned managers Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard also had their names pop up.

Carsley has been in charge in the interim, overseeing two international breaks so far with one more to go. The former Under-21s head coach saw his name thrown into the hat for the position, though he never seemed 100% himself on taking it. 

While he seemed to not shy away from changing things up, naming rather surprising squads that left out some bigger names in favour of players he knew from his side that won the 2023 Under-21 European Championship.

But while the first round of internationals seemed decent, winning 2-0 in both opening Nations League fixtures against Ireland and Finland, a 2-1 loss to high-flying Greece in the third match seemed to doom his fate, despite following it up with a 3-1 win over Finland.

Carsley will return to his role as England U21 manager, a move which he will likely enjoy much more.

As for the appointment of Tuchel, it seems many are split at the decision. While some celebrate the decision to go outside of English managers for the role, others seem to despise it.

Then there’s The Telegraph, which has criticised the decision. Their Chief Football Writer Sam Wallace said hours before the appointment, “Throwing money at overseas talent reduces international game to an imitation of club football—the FA should have hired an English coach,” despite relishing the idea of current Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola taking charge just three days prior.

Regardless of people’s thoughts and opinions, Tuchel is coming and hopefully some better fortunes for England. The manager’s accomplishments do all the talking for him, so here’s to hoping he’ll be able to take what Southgate was able to make into major championship finalists and turn them into champions.