England Entrusts a National Treasure to (Gasp!) a German

The post of coach of the England men’s national soccer team has long been described — with only a hint of exaggeration — as the second-most important job in the country. In terms of prestige, significance and pressure, the theory goes, it is outstripped only by the even more thankless task of being prime minister.

As of Jan. 1, the position that occupies such an outsize role in the national psyche will be filled by a German. The Football Association, the body that oversees England’s national sport, confirmed on Wednesday that it had agreed to a deal with Thomas Tuchel to take charge of the country’s team until the end of the 2026 World Cup.

The sporting logic behind the appointment of the 51-year-old Tuchel is impeccable. He has coached several of the world’s most prominent clubs, including Borussia Dortmund, Paris St.-Germain, Bayern Munich and Chelsea. He has won domestic honors in both France and Germany, and lifted the Champions League trophy with Chelsea in 2021.

He is, as the F.A. said in a statement, “one of the best coaches in the world,” an ideal candidate to salve English soccer’s open wound: the fact that it has not won a major men’s tournament since 1966.

But despite his heavyweight résumé, Tuchel’s appointment has not met with universal approval. The right-leaning Daily Mail described his arrival as a “dark day for England” on Wednesday morning.

The tabloid placed particular emphasis on the fact that the country had hired not just a foreigner but someone from Germany: traditionally one of England’s great rivals, both sporting and otherwise. The word “German” was capitalized on the newspaper’s back page on Wednesday morning.