Thomas Tuchel has signed a deal to become the new England manager.
The 51-year-old German ends the wait for a permanent new head coach following Gareth Southgate’s resignation in the summer.
Tuchel has been out of work since leaving Bayern Munich at the end of last season.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham and technical director John McDermott have been in discussions with Tuchel since last month.
Chelsea’s Champions League-winning former boss will become England’s first German-born manager.
Analysis: ‘An extraordinary situation…the deal is done’
Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett:
“He has signed the contract to take over as Gareth Southgate’s successor.
“We are expecting a news conference at Wembley at 1.30pm on Wednesday which chief executive Mark Bullingham will attend, answer some questions and explain his decision.
“It’s not yet been confirmed if Tuchel will be at that news conference but I would fully expect him to be.
“It’s an extraordinary situation with England appointing only the third non-English manager to take charge of the men’s senior football team – and of course a German coach as well with all of the extra controversy that it’ll bring, and the rivalry between England and Germany that goes back so many decades.
“But the deal is done. It has happened quickly as Tuchel is a free agent having left Bayern Munich in May. I suspected it might drag on as he will have to take a significant pay-cut to join England, half the €9m salary he was on in Munich.
“I expect he will earn around £4.5m to £5m – a significant pay-cut for a very decorated club manager.”
Analysis: Is Tuchel the right fit for England?
Sky Sports’ Peter Smith:
It’s hard to imagine a more strenuous set of off-field circumstances for a football manager to have to cope with than those he faced at Chelsea but the German repeatedly brought honesty, integrity and personality to his press conferences during his time at Stamford Bridge. It was admirable leadership in the most trying of circumstances.
The credit to Tuchel is that, when he was sacked by Todd Boehly and co in September 2022 his reputation was enhanced, both in terms of his work as a coach and as a figurehead for a football club.
With his additional high-profile experiences at Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and most recently Bayern Munich, there can be few managers who know better how to deal with the microscopic analysis made of operators at the very top end of world football and the challenges they face.
The England role is perhaps the most intensely scrutinised of them all – but there can be few coaches better prepared for that element of the job.
Read Peter Smith’s feature in full here
More to follow…
