New national coach of England: Will Thomas Tuchel sing along with the anthem?

In October last year, ex-Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel (51) was introduced as an English national coach, now it is slowly getting serious. On March 21st, Tuchel’s first game will be on the sidelines – the World Cup qualification game against Albania. Among other things, the English press drives the question of whether the third foreign national coach of the Three Lions will also sing along with the legendary “God Save the King”. When asked during a press conference, Tuchel had a special answer.

Instead of a simple “yes” or “no”, the Champions League winner of 2021 said that the hymn of England would be “a very powerful, emotional and meaningful national anthem”. At the same time, he could “not be proud to stand on the sidelines and to look after the English national team”.

According to Tuchel, this means “everything”. But because “God Save the King” would be such an meaningful, emotionally charged hymn, you couldn’t “just sing”.

Rather, he, the German star coach, must first earn “the right to sing the national anthem”. Therefore, Tuchel will not sing the hymn in his first games.

Later, if the English fans were accepted as a “real English”, the appropriate time may have come. “I will earn it with results,” said Tuchel literally to the cause.

His foreign predecessors, the Sven-Göran Eriksson (1948-2024) and the Italian Fabio Capello (78), who died of cancer in 2024, dealt with the question of the hymn singing differently. Eriksson admitted that he never really “mastered” the national anthem. The Swede nevertheless tried to sing before the games during his term as an English national coach. The Italian Capello, however, decided against it.