Thomas Tuchel explains U-turn after ‘falling in love’ with England job as new contract signed
Thomas Tuchel has admitted to falling in love with the England job, having signed a new contract that will run until the end of the European Championships in 2028.
The German only took charge in January 2025 but has now been tied down for another two years, having made a positive impression so far.
England have won nine of their match 10 matches under Tuchel, qualifying for this summer’s World Cup in the process, with a 3-1 defeat to Senegal at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground the only time they’ve failed to come out on top.
Now, speaking to England Football’s official website, the 52-year-old has opened up on his decision to extend his stay.
“I’m very pleased. It was me in the beginning that wanted a short-term contract only for 18 months because I was not sure what’s coming in international football; how fast can I adapt and what is the job all about?” he said.
“But very soon, I fell in love with the job and the role and I was from the first day very committed and very proud.
“Now, I felt in the last half-a-year – especially what we’re building and the spirit growing and creating a special bond between the players and having extraordinary results – it’s just a pleasure to extend and try to complete the full cycle of two tournaments.”
Thomas Tuchel has admitted to falling in love with the England job, having signed a new contract that will run until the end of the European Championships in 2028
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PA
Tuchel’s backroom staff have also extended their own deals with the national team.
The England boss says he’s ‘super happy’ that they’ve decided to stay as he looks to guide the Three Lions to a first major tournament triumph since the 1966 World Cup.
“Yes, and we’re very grateful for that,” he said. “We feel this genuine support.
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“We feel that the board and especially John [McDermott], Mark [Bullingham] and Dan [Ashworth] are behind us and with us.
“I have the feeling that we all know what we want. We want to compete for titles in the big tournaments and in the big competitions but we are very aligned in the way that we wanted and that feels very, very good for us as a staff.
“I’m obviously super happy to have my staff around me because they challenge me, they support me and we are a group of friends basically and I can rely on them on the very highest level, so we’re very grateful for that.
“That is actually the basis why there was no doubt in my mind that this is the right decision to go forward.”
Tuchel admits to being ‘careful’ when he first arrived with England.
But he feels he now knows enough about the players to be more adventurous in his style, while expressing his delight at the results he’s achieved so far.
Thomas Tuchel has won nine of his 10 matches as England manager so far
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PA
“Maybe a good thing was I didn’t expect so much,” he continued. “That’s why I was a bit careful in the beginning.
“As I said, I can fully commit to this dream to lead an England team into a World Cup. This is no problem for me and I can just start this adventure right now which we absolutely did and learning basically the job and the part of how to call a team up, how to do a nomination process, what is already in place, what we want to change a little bit and then from September onwards, basically having this impact and diving deep into football and shaping our style of play and having the results and feeling the group bond and creating something special that made it an amazing year so far.
“I think this decision now gives us clarity – I think clarity is always important for players, for staff and for the federation and of course, for the fans.
“We want to lead the team into the full cycle of two tournaments and in between, we have the Nations League, so we will try to compete for all three titles.”
England are next in action against Uruguay on March 27.
They’ll then to do battle with Japan four days later.
