Thomas Tuchel has agreed to become the new England manager after reaching a deal with the Football Association – and the German will be unveiled later this week.
Tuchel quickly emerged as the frontrunner on Tuesday, having left his job as Bayern Munich manager at the end of last season. After receiving assurances the German was interested in the job, FA chiefs quickly entered into negotiations with him.
A deal has now been agreed, as first reported by The Times, with Tuchel becoming just the third permanent foreign manager of the England team in the country’s history, following in the footsteps of the late Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello. The FA have been searching for a successor since the end of Euro 2024 when Gareth Southgate resigned from his post.
Lee Carsley has been in interim charge of the team ever since, guiding the Three Lions through the Nations League. But following both last week’s defeat to Greece and Sunday’s win over Finland, Carsley made it clear he would not be taking on the job permanently.
Tuchel became the top contender after Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chief executive, and technical director John McDermott approached him last month.
He has been out of work since being sacked by Bayern and has effectively been on gardening leave ever since, though the Bundesliga side are not expected to demand compensation.
The FA are understood to be planning a press conference this week, likely to announce Tuchel’s arrival as manager. Tuchel has previously had spells in charge of Mainz, Borussia Dortmund, PSG and Chelsea.
He led the Blues to four cup finals, winning the Champions League, before being sacked in September 2022. He also led Dortmund the DFB-Pokal in 2017, PSG to two Ligue 1 titles and Bayern to the Bundesliga title in 2023.
That CV has underlined his credentials to work with top players and the FA hope that his arrival will help England go from being beaten finalists in the last two Euros to winners in major tournaments.
The FA had also made contact with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola in the summer but the Catalan has not given them an answer and there is a strong belief he will stay at the Etihad for another year.
That saw the pursuit of Tuchel accelerated, with the German flying over to London for talks. Carsley is likely to go back to being in charge of the under-21s.
