Thomas Tuchel leads England national football team at World Cup, marking a first for German coaching in English football

A German is coaching England at the World Cup. Let that sink in for a moment.

Thomas Tuchel, appointed as England’s head coach in October 2024, has named his 26-man squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The squad was revealed on May 22, 2026, ahead of England’s opening match against Croatia on June 17. It’s England’s most ambitious bid for the trophy since 1966, the only year the country has ever won the tournament, and the man tasked with ending that 60-year drought isn’t even English.

How England got here

Tuchel’s appointment was announced on October 16, 2024, making him the third non-British permanent manager of England’s men’s team, and the first German to hold the position. He officially started the role on January 1, 2025, under an initial 18-month contract designed to carry the team through the World Cup cycle.

Tuchel’s resume includes winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, managing Paris Saint-Germain to domestic dominance, and coaching Bayern Munich. His approach to the 2026 squad has emphasized team cohesion and collective performance over individual star power.

The crypto angle: FIFA, Kraken, and the fan token gap

FIFA has partnered with Kraken as the tournament’s first official crypto exchange supporter. Multiple nations competing in the 2026 World Cup have launched official fan tokens on platforms like Chiliz and Socios, giving supporters a way to engage with their teams through digital assets, voting on minor club decisions, accessing exclusive content, and trading tokens on secondary markets.

England, notably, does not have an official fan token on the Chiliz platform. For one of football’s most-followed national teams, competing in the sport’s biggest tournament, that absence is conspicuous. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has taken a relatively cautious stance on crypto promotions, which may partly explain why the FA hasn’t rushed into the fan token space.

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