Prince William meets new England boss Thomas Tuchel for first time and ‘spoke for an hour…..Read More

Thomas Tuchel was named as England manager at the start of the year and is set for his first matches in charge in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

Prince William has met with the new England manager, Thomas Tuchel, for the first time ahead of his inaugural matches as the Three Lions’ boss.

Tuchel officially assumed the role at the start of the year, succeeding Sir Gareth Southgate who stepped down after Euro 2024 last summer.

His first match in charge will be against Albania next month. The Duke of Cambridge, who is Patron of the Football Association, welcomed Tuchel and Mark Bullingham, the CEO of the FA, to Windsor Castle.

A photo shared on social media showed the Prince shaking hands with the new England manager, captioned: “Great to meet new @England men’s manager Thomas Tuchel for the first time today, and hear about plans for the team”, accompanied by a strong arm emoji.

The Mirror claim that their meeting lasted over an hour, during which Tuchel shared his views on the team and his aspirations for the future

A Royal insider revealed that they also discussed Aston Villa’s ongoing Champions League campaign. Tuchel, a German national, has been given the responsibility of leading England to victory in the 2026 World Cup.

The Three Lions will face Albania, Latvia, Andorra and Serbia in the qualifiers. Despite not having another top-tier team in their group, Tuchel has warned that qualifying for the World Cup will not be a walk in the park, with Albania being their first opponent at Wembley on March 21.

It’s a difficult group,” admitted ex-Chelsea manager Tuchel. “Serbia and Albania have some good individual players, top coaches and some very famous ex-players, so it will be very tough. We’ll have to be very respectful of that.

“We have to be at our top level to make it to the World Cup – it’s the most important task at the moment to not get distracted. We also don’t want to get distracted by the role of favourites.”