For the first time in history, England are being led into the World Cup by a German manager.
Thomas Tuchel is the man in charge of the Three Lions this time around, and it’s fair to say that Tuchel’s role as England manager is a controversial one.
In a nutshell, England and Germany have a complicated history, both in football and politics, so, for some, a German England manager isn’t something that adds up.
Of course, there’s also the question of what will happen if England do face Germany at this World Cup.
If Tuchel faces Germany, he will not only be facing a home nation, he’ll be facing a protégé in the shape of Julian Nagelsmann.
Speaking on Toni Kroos’ Podcast, Nagelsmann has been discussing his journey into management, his role alongside Thomas Tuchel, and their relationship today.
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Nagelsmann spoke about his time with Tuchel as his analyst.
The Germany manager spoke highly of Tuchel before discussing his current relationship with the England boss.
“At the same time, I was studying in Augsburg. Then Thomas Tuchel came up with the idea that I could keep my contract running for the remaining six months, continue receiving my salary, and in return analyse upcoming opponents. Back then, detailed opposition analysis wasn’t nearly as common as it is today,” Nagelsmann said.
That’s how I gradually got pulled into coaching. To be honest, I never planned on becoming a coach while I was a player. You often hear former players say they spent every moment of their career preparing to become a coach one day. I’m not sure I fully believe that. It certainly wasn’t the case for me. I wanted to be a footballer, not a coach. It happened more by chance.
Of course, I already knew Thomas had an excellent reputation from his time in Stuttgart, and he was doing a fantastic job in Augsburg as well. He had outstanding ideas and was already somewhat revolutionary at the time. He didn’t do everything the standard way.
You immediately learned things from him. Discussing opponents with him was fascinating for me. I definitely learned far more from him than I contributed myself. Those were my first experiences of looking at football from a completely different perspective.
It was very interesting, and eventually he told me that coaching might actually be a good path for me. He liked my way of thinking, my presence, and the things I noticed in matches. That’s really how I ended up becoming a coach—without ever having planned it in detail beforehand.’
“Do you still have a relationship with him today?” Nagelsmann was asked.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Nagelsmann said.
“We still message each other from time to time. It’s not as though we’re in constant contact because everyone is busy with their own day-to-day life and has plenty on their plate. As is often the case, when people are occupied, they can drift a little out of sight and out of mind.
“But yes, we do exchange messages now and then—about matches, football in general, or if one of us notices something interesting. It’s just not the case that we’re on the phone every week. There’s simply too little time for that,”
England could well face Germany in the latter stages of the World Cup.
England have, interestingly, been in a similar situation to this before.
In both 2002 and 2006, Swedish boss, Sven Goran Eriksson led England to the World Cup, and, interestingly, he came up against Sweden in the group stages both times.
England drew both of those games against Sweden, and while Tuchel may be from Germany, he’ll be hoping for a better result this time around if he faces his home nation, while Nagelsmann will want to get one over his mentor too.
There would be tons of drama if England faced Germany at the World Cup, that’s for sure.
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