Thomas Tuchel will officially start his new role on January 1 (Picture: Getty)
Thomas Tuchel ‘ideally wants’ England to face Germany in the 2026 World Cup final, says football pundit Nedum Onuoha.
Tuchel was recently confirmed as the new manager of the Three Lions, with the German becoming just the third foreign head coach in England’s entire history.
The 51-year-old is widely considered to be an elite-level manager, but many were left disappointed that the Football Association (FA) did not pick an Englishman.
Some were angered by Tuchel’s specific passport – given Germany are arguably England’s main rivals in international football – but the ex-Chelsea boss has previously stated he feels more ‘appreciated’ in England than his native country.
Former Premier League footballer Onuoha, an ex-England U21 international whoworks as a pundit, has now claimed that Tuchel wants an England vs Germany showdown in the final of the next World Cup, being hosted in North America.
‘For Tuchel, I think the love that he has for German Football is probably not as big as the love that he has for England from what I’ve heard,’ Onuoha told Footy Accumulators’ No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.
‘At times he maybe would be rubbing people the wrong way in Germany and from the German FA side of things, It seems like after Naglesmen it’s going to be Klopp, and Tuchel hasn’t got a say in that.
Thomas Tuchel has ‘got a little bit of edge to him’ (Picture: Getty)
‘Tuchel’s got a little bit of edge to him so I think his ideal World Cup final would be England against Germany, and he wins it for England.’
Onuoha supports the decision to hire Tuchel and has stated that English fans don’t tend to back English managers, pointing to the criticism Southgate faced.
‘Overall, the English public doesn’t have a belief in their English managers,’ the former Manchester City and Queen’s Park Rangers defender added.
‘I think we can be very guilty of just going along with a narrative and then forgetting what it could mean for the bigger picture.
‘It would be great if in England all the best managers were English, but it’s not been like that for a long time, and as a consequence, this is where we find ourselves when you think about picking an England international manager.
‘You could have someone like Southgate come in but does that give the nation what they want or will they be critical again because lots of people didn’t like Gareth Southgate? But objectively, the opportunities that England had while he was in charge were better than any we’ve seen since 1966.’