Thomas Tuchel’s appointment: A German in charge of England? Nationality matters less in international football than before

In his first press conference as the newly appointed head coach of England, thomas tuchel – a German – was asked on Wednesday (October 16, 2024) what message he had for fans who would have preferred an Englishman in charge of their beloved national team.

He laughed and said, “I’m sorry, I only have a German passport,” and went on to proclaim his love for English football and the country. “I will do everything I can to show respect for this role and this country.”

The football rivalry between England and Germany runs deep and it is likely that Tuchel’s passport will be used against him if he cannot deliver results for the country, which has not won a men’s trophy since 1966. But his appointment as England’s third overseas coach shows that increasingly, even the game’s top nations are abandoning the long-held belief that the national team should be led by one of their own. One should do it.

Four of the top nine teams in the FIFA world rankings now have foreign coaches. Even four-time World Cup winners Germany, which has never had a foreign coach, considered candidates like Dutchman Louis van Gaal and Austrian Oliver Glasner before the country’s football federation decided on Julian Nagelsmann last year. Was considered a serious contender for the top post. Who is German?

German football researcher and author Christoph Wagner, whose recent book Crossing the border? Addresses the historical Anglo-German rivalry. “It is personality that matters more, not nationality. You can be a great coach, and work with a group of players who aren’t smart enough to understand your methods.

Not everyone agrees.

English football writer and journalist Jonathan Wilson said that for a major football nation to hire a coach from a different country was “an admission of failure”.

“Personally, I think it should be one country’s best versus another country’s best, and that would probably extend to coaches as well as players,” said Wilson, whose books include Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Strategy,

“To say that we couldn’t find anyone in our country who was good enough to train our players,” he said, “I think there’s something shameful, a little distasteful about that.”

That sentiment was echoed by the British tabloid The Daily Mailwhich reported on Tuchel’s appointment with the provocative headline “A dark day for England”.

No World Cup has been won by a foreign coach

While foreign coaches are often found in smaller countries and those lower in the world rankings, they are still rare among the sport’s traditional powers. Italy, the four-time world champion, has been dominated only by Italians. All Spain coaches in modern history have been Spanish citizens. At five-time World Cup winners Brazil the only Brazilians have been in charge since 1965, and at two-time world champions France the only Frenchmen have been in charge since 1975.

And it remains the case that every World Cup-winning team since the first tournament in 1930 has been coached by a native of the same country. The same is true for the Women’s World Cup, which has never been won by a team with a foreign coach, although Jill Ellis, who led the United States to two trophies, is a naturalized American citizen born in England.

Some coaches have made a career out of moving from one national team to another. Lars Lagerback, 76, coached his native Sweden between 2000-09 and led the national teams of Nigeria, Iceland and Norway.

“I can’t say I noticed a big difference,” Lagerbach said. The Associated Press“I felt like they were my team and the people’s team.”

For Lagerback, the obvious disadvantage of coaching in a foreign country was the language difficulties and adapting to a new culture, which he particularly felt during his brief spell with Nigeria in 2010 when he led the African nation to the World Cup. Had led.

Otherwise, he said, “it depends on the results” – and Lagerbäck is fondly remembered in Iceland, especially, after leading the country to its first international tournament at Euro 2016, where it lost in the round of 16. England was defeated.

Lagerbach pointed to the strong education and huge number of coaches available in football powerhouses such as Spain and Italy as why they do not need to turn to foreign coaches. At this year’s European Championships, five coaches were from Italy and the winning coach was Luis de la Fuente, who was promoted to the Spain senior team after being in charge of the youth teams.

Portugal looked for the first time outside its borders or to Brazil, with which it has historical ties, when it appointed Spaniard Roberto Martínez as national team coach last year. Also last year, Brazil tried – and ultimately failed – to court Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, with Brazilian Football Federation president Edmundo Rodrigues saying: “It doesn’t matter whether it’s foreign or Brazilian, the nationality. There is no prejudice about.

The United States had a long list of foreign coaches before Argentine former Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino. Takes over as men’s head coach This year.

The English Football Association certainly had no problem making Tuchel the third foreign-born coach of the national team, after Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson (2001–06) and Italian Fabio Capello (2008–12), simply because they believed that Was that he was the best coach available. market.

Unlike Eriksen and Capello, Tuchel at least has previous experience working in English football – he won the Champions League in an 18-month spell with Chelsea – and he also speaks better English.

However, this won’t satisfy all the naysayers.

“Hopefully I can convince them and show them and prove that I’m proud to be an English manager,” Tuchel said.