At his first public appearance in charge of a struggling Chelsea team in early 2021, Thomas Tuchel set himself an ambitious target. The Premier League title was already beyond reach, he said, so success would mean winning the Champions League, European club football’s highest honour.
Four months later his transformed side beat Manchester City in the final. Afterwards, Tuchel insisted the triumph would have little impact on him personally. “It was a relentless performance,” he said of the 1-0 win. “I don’t want to rest . . . I want the next success.”
This week Tuchel was named as the next head coach of England’s men’s team, and set out a new goal: to lift the World Cup in 2026. Speaking to the UK press in a crisp white shirt and dark grey suit rather than his trademark tracksuit and baseball cap, he said: “We will try to install values and principles and rules as quickly as possible to make the dream come true.”