Thomas Tuchel was named England’s new manager on Wednesday, with the German set to start on January 1, 2025.

The 51-year-old, who has been out of work since leaving Bayern Munich at the end of last season, succeeds Englishman Gareth Southgate as permanent coach and becomes the third foreign manager of the Three Lions after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

A former coach of Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, and Bayern Munich, Tuchel has the trophy-winning pedigree that the FA is seeking to help end a 58-year wait to win a major tournament.

However, the move has drawn criticism over the FA’s unwillingness to trust an Englishman with its top job.

Tuchel will be assisted by English coach Anthony Barry, who worked alongside him at Bayern Munich.

“I am very proud to have been given the honour of leading the England team,” Tuchel said in a FA statement.

“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 won league titles at PSG and Bayern and the German Cup with Dortmund, but his greatest success came during his time in English football at Chelsea.

He led the Blues to Champions League glory just months after taking charge in 2021 and also won the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup with the London club.

Tuchel was sacked in September 2022 in a bold early move by Chelsea’s new ownership group that did not pay off.

He becomes the permanent successor to Southgate, who led the Three Lions to back-to-back finals of the European Championship, plus a World Cup semi-final and quarter-final in his four major tournaments in charge.

England are still yet to win a major men’s tournament since the 1966 World Cup on home soil.

“We are thrilled to have hired Thomas Tuchel, one of the best coaches in the world,” said FA CEO Mark Bullingham.

“Since Gareth resigned, we have worked through the candidate pool, meeting a number of coaches and evaluating them against that criteria.

PUNCH

Nigeria’s U17 girls, Flamingos will gun for the maximum points when they take on their counterparts from New Zealand on Wednesday night in what is actually the first match of this year’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals in the Dominican Republic.

Although the game between host nation Dominican Republic and Ecuador (the other fixture in Group A) is billed as the opening match, Nigeria and New Zealand will do battle at the CFC Stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros from 4pm local time (9pm in Nigeria), while the host nation and Ecuador will square up as from 9pm local time (2am Thursday in Nigeria).

Bronze medallists in the last edition of the competition in India, the Flamingos are aiming to go farther this time, with Head Coach Bankole Olowookere insisting that he has the ammunition to overcome opponents on their way.

“I have confidence in the girls to deliver the goods at this competition. We have come well-prepared to do even better than we did in India. The Nigeria Football Federation have done everything to prepare the team well, with a two-week final camping here in Dominican Republic.

“We do not under-rate any of our opponents. However, we will take it one match at a time and produce our best in each game in order to go all the way.”

The Flamingos have previously missed taking part in only one edition of the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals – the 2018 finals in Uruguay.

In the qualifying campaign for this year’s finals, the Nigerian girls notched 25 goals in six matches, with 13 of them scored by clinical forward Harmony Chidi.

After the encounter with New Zealand on Wednesday night, the Flamingos will confront their counterparts from Ecuador, also at the CFC Stadium in Santiago de los Caballeros, before their final group phase game against the host nation at the Felix Sanchez Stadium in Santo Domingo. The clash with Ecuador is on Saturday, 19th October while the battle with the host nation is on Tuesday, 22nd October.

In 2023, former Manchester City and France international Benjamin Mendy was cleared of seven charges of rape and another of sexual assault, in two separate trials. Due to this legal situation, City stopped paying Mendy’s wages.

In an employment tribunal that opened this week, Mendy, and City have both charged each other with explosive revelations.

Mendy claims that the current Premier League champions owe him £11.5 million in unpaid wages and bonuses.

In a statement included in the documents presented at the tribunal 30-year-old Mendy said: “Despite the support that I received from a number of the players, I felt that Manchester City as a club took the view that I was guilty from the outset and decided not to support me at all or be seen to have anything to do with me.”

In response, City has argued that Mendy engaged in “reckless behaviour” while a member of the team and that even after he was arrested by the police he continued to act unprofessionally.

Among the revelations was, the left-back was caught hiding in a cupboard of a house in Salford during a police-led manhunt. Other City players attended his infamous “sex parties” including current England internationals, Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker, and John Stones. He also went through multiple bankruptcy hearings after developing financial issues because of City’s refusal to pay him.

At the heart of the case is Mendy’s claim that City assumed he’d be heading to prison and unlawfully withdrew his salary for almost two years before his contract expired in June 2023.

The bulk of the incidents occurred while the UK was in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown. It was claimed that Mendy would regularly hold parties, get drunk, and stay up to the early hours. Eventually, this behaviour got back to City who fined him a week’s wages, however, that did not slow him down.

Amongst the documents handed to the tribunal were details of his six-year contract. He was earning £6 a year plus a minimum of £1.2 million for image rights and a further £900,000 if he played 60% of games. There was also a one-off payment of £1 million if the club qualified for the UEFA Champions League. Other bonuses included winning trophies, which of course City did on a regular basis.

City’s main argument is that it was “impossible” to involve Mendy in the club because of the FA’s suspension as well as his bail conditions and the time he spent in prison on remand.

The judge said she expected to issue a verdict in four weeks.