2026/27 UEFA Nations League league phase draw; Tuchel speaks on England contract extension

Your backroom team have also extended their contracts. It shows a commitment across the board to the work you’ve started, doesn’t it?

Yes, and we’re very grateful for that. We feel this genuine support. We feel that the board and especially John [McDermott], Mark [Bullingham] and Dan [Ashworth] are behind us and with us. I have the feeling that we all know what we want. We want to compete for titles in the big tournaments and in the big competitions but we are very aligned in the way that we wanted and that feels very, very good for us as a staff.

I’m obviously super happy to have my staff around me because they challenge me, they support me and we are a group of friends basically and I can rely on them on the very highest level, so we’re very grateful for that. That is actually the basis why there was no doubt in my mind that this is the right decision to go forward.

On that wider support network – the infrastructure at St. George’s Park and Wembley and the whole of the FA setup – have you felt the support there?

I felt the support very quickly and I felt the level of support very quickly, on which we can rely on. Like I said, I had to learn the job. It was a job in high-level football but it was very different and it is very different from club football but as soon as we got used to it and the support of the FA and the facilities and what is in place made it very easy.

And after, we felt good and focused on the sporting side, especially in the September, October and November camp. It just felt the right thing to do to extend and it felt the right thing to commit, there’s no doubt.

Now you’re over a year in, how have you found that transition you mentioned from club to international football? Have you grown more comfortable?

Maybe a good thing was I didn’t expect so much. That’s why I was a bit careful in the beginning. As I said, I can fully commit to this dream to lead an England team into a World Cup. This is no problem for me and I can just start this adventure right now which we absolutely did and learning basically the job and the part of how to call a team up, how to do a nomination process, what is already in place, what we want to change a little bit and then from September onwards, basically having this impact and diving deep into football and shaping our style of play and having the results and feeling the group bond and creating something special that made it an amazing year so far.

I think this decision now gives us clarity – I think clarity is always important for players, for staff and for the federation and of course, for the fans. We want to lead the team into the full cycle of two tournaments and in between, we have the Nations League, so we will try to compete for all three titles.

Was there a moment where you thought, ‘this is for me and I want to be here for longer’?

I felt it quite early that I want to be here. It felt quite exciting in the beginning from the first talk with John McDermott. We had this connection and the passion that John has for football is very infectious, so in my head it felt very soon the right thing to do but then in the job, it was maybe September camp with the way camp felt inside. It felt new, it felt exciting, it was deeply about football and building a team and it was deeply into the details and creating certain principles of the game and a certain style.

With the big win in Serbia, I think this was the initial moment and was maybe the outstanding moment where we all felt, ‘OK, we can build something even if we are not around the players on a daily basis but now, we know how to do this, how to stay connected and we know how to influence them in the ten days that we have them’, so this was a key moment and since then, we kept progressing and we will do so.

You’ve said before that managing at the World Cup was a childhood dream of yours and that’s the focus right now but as you’ve touched on, there’s the Nations League and the EUROs. How excited are you at the prospect of leading England into another major tournament?

It’s nothing but exciting. I’m very, very proud. I was proud before to get offered the job. I’m proud while I’m doing it. I’m in love with the players and the Premier League and the country and how to push the national team and how everyone in the country has its favourite team and pushes their team in club football and it shapes their players. I’m still in love with that and I’m very proud to be in charge.

The thing that I only signed for 18 months was my wish and I didn’t want to lose the focus towards the World Cup. Now, after more than one year in the job, I can say I will not lose the focus. We are very, very clear who we want to nominate, how we want to nominate and how we want to present ourselves in the World Cup. This will now give us clarity that after the World Cup, we will continue, then we will compete in the Nations League.

Lee [Carsley] did an amazing job to put us into the first league, so we will have tough competition there to be ready for a home EUROs and this is nothing but a dream come true – now into a World Cup year with England then having the prospect of being a host of the EUROs. That is fantastic.