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• 'I want to put second star on shirt' - new England boss Tuchel targeting World Cup glory

  Thomas Tuchel wants "to put the second star on this shirt", as the new England head coach set his sights on World Cup glory in 2026.

  The 51-year-old was announced as Gareth Southgate's successor on Wednesday, agreeing an 18-month contract that will begin on January 1.

  Former Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss Tuchel is the first German to manage the Three Lions, and only the third non-English coach in history after the late Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

  Southgate came within whiskers of ending England's wait for major international silverware, suffering successive European Championship final defeats against Italy and Spain.

  Tuchel, who has also managed Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, is excited to be working with such a talented group of players, and hopes he can help get the group over the winning line.

  "I want to put the second star [for a World Cup win] on this shirt," he told reporters during his press conference at Wembley. "We will work hard for the biggest target in football, making our dream come true at the World Cup [in] 2026.

  "I understood very quickly that it is a big job. I always think the job you are in is the biggest job, and it makes no sense to compare, but it feels big and feels like a privilege.

  "I think it is pretty obvious I am very emotional. I love what I am doing and am passionate about football. This role just brought the young me alive and brought back my teenage days, to get excited for such a big task.

  "Once I made a time frame up in my mind from January [2025] to the World Cup, I already felt excited.

  "It suited my passion to push this group of players, and to be part of this federation with such a strong record in the last tournaments - to push it over the line and to try to put a second star on the shirt."

  Lee Carsley will continue in his role as England's interim head coach for the remainder of the ongoing Nations League campaign, before Tuchel takes over the reins.

  The German also addressed critics believing an Englishman should oversee the national team, believing his previous stint at Chelsea between January 2021 and September 2022 - during which he won the Champions League and Club World Cup - stands him in good stead.

  "All of those supporters maybe felt my passion for the English Premier League and the country, and how I love to live and work here," he added.

  "Hopefully, I can convince them and show them and prove to them that I am proud to be an English manager, and do everything to show respect to this role and this country and the target for the next 18 months.

  "Everyone can be assured we will do it with passion and emotion. We will try to install values and principles and rules as quickly as possible to make the dream come true."

• Twenty years of Messi: The Barcelona great's career celebrated

  Precisely 20 years ago, the player many consider to be the greatest of all time made his senior debut.

  At the age of 17, Lionel Messi made his first appearance in LaLiga on October 16, 2004, replacing goalscorer Deco from the bench in Barcelona's 1-0 win at Espanyol. He was, at the time, the club's youngest player to feature in an official game.

  The rest, as they say, is history – 846 goals, eight Ballons d'Or and 43 senior team honours later, Messi has certainly cemented his place among the all-time greats.

  On the 20th anniversary of his first professional outing, we celebrate the Argentine maestro by delving into the best facts and figures of his glittering career.

  From prodigy to club legend

  Messi's crowning achievement may have come on the international stage, but it was at Barcelona where he became a great, after joining their famed academy aged 13.

  By the time of his 2021 departure, Messi had cemented himself as Barca's all-time leader for appearances (766) and starts (687) in all competitions, scoring an incredible 664 goals for the Blaugrana – comfortably ahead of Cesar Rodriguez's 232, previously recognised as the club record.

  Messi averaged a goal every 94 minutes during his 17-year stint in the club's senior team, while his 260 assists were some 123 more than Xavi (137), who boasts the second-best figure since Opta records began.

  All in all, Messi directly contributed to a staggering 924 goals while at Barca. The next-best figure by a single player in that time belongs to Luis Suarez, who managed 295 (198 goals, 97 assists).

  The Argentine lifted 35 trophies – including LaLiga 10 times and the Champions League on four occasions – during his time at Camp Nou, also a record tally for any Barca player.

   

  No love in Paris

  When financial troubles left Barca unable to renew Messi's contract ahead of the 2021-22 season, he bid a tearful farewell to his adopted home and joined French giants Paris Saint-Germain.

  Messi did contribute to two Ligue 1 title wins in as many seasons with the club, yet his time in Paris was not altogether happy, with early Champions League exits at the hands of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich giving way to fan protests.

  Messi did win his seventh Ballon d'Or during his debut campaign in France, though, partly as a result of Argentina's 2021 Copa America triumph.

  His 26 league appearances in 2021-22 were his fewest in any league campaign since 2006-07, when he was still a teenager, and he was limited to just six goals and nine assists in the French top flight.

  Sixteen goals and as many assists followed in 2022-23, and through his two years in Ligue 1, only Kylian Mbappe (79) and Wissam Ben Yedder (55) bettered his overall tally of 55 goal involvements in the competition.

   

  To the Sunshine State

  A fractious relationship with PSG's fans and a lack of continental success made Messi's stay in France unhappy, and in 2023 he went Stateside, joining David Beckham-owned MLS franchise Inter Miami.

  Success was immediate as Messi fired the Herons to Leagues Cup glory in August 2023. By the end of that particular campaign, Messi's 10 goals in seven matches put him third in Inter Miami's all-time goalscoring charts without even appearing in a league game.

  The 2024 Supporters' Shield followed last month, and Messi is the hot favourite to be named MLS MVP after a brilliant individual campaign, the highlights of which include a 10-match run with a goal involvement to start the season and five assists in May's 6-2 rout of the New York Red Bulls, a game in which he also scored.

   

  No player had previously had six goal involvements in an MLS game, or teed up five goals for team-mates in a single match, nor had Messi previously achieved either feat for club and country.

  Only Luciano Acosta (30), Evander (29), Cucho Hernandez, Denis Bouanga and Christian Benteke (all 28) have bettered his 27 direct goal involvements in regular-season play this year. The most impressive part? Messi has only started 15 games. 

  International glory

  It now seems unthinkable to imagine Messi being maligned by Argentina fans, but that was the case for the majority of his career as he struggled to live up to Diego Maradona's achievements in the Albiceleste shirt.

  However, back-to-back Copa America successes in 2021 and 2024, coming either side of a remarkable run to World Cup glory in 2022, have altered that perception for good.

  Messi was named Player of the Tournament and scooped the Golden Boot as Argentina ended their 18-year wait for silverware at the 2021 Copa, but it was Qatar 2022 that saw him really cement his legacy.

  Only Poland – in Argentina's third group game – prevented Messi from scoring as he ended the tournament with seven goals and three assists, including two strikes and a successful spot-kick in the shoot-out win over France in the final.

  Only Gerd Muller (10 goals, three assists in 1970), Just Fontaine (13 goals in 1958) and Sandor Kocsis (11 goals in 1954) have ever bettered that figure at a single World Cup.

  His 21 overall goal contributions at the World Cup are the most in tournament history, while he is the only player to win the Golden Ball award at two separate editions – doing so in 2014 and 2022.

   

  This year's Copa America gave Messi a chance to further underline his international legacy, and though he was withdrawn due to injury in the final, Argentina got the job done against Colombia. 

  Messi opted against calling it quits there, though, and Tuesday's hat-trick against Bolivia saw him equal Cristiano Ronaldo's record for the most trebles in international football, with 10. 

  His tally of 112 Argentina goals puts him some way adrift of Ronaldo's tally of 133 for Portugal, though his recent run of international trophies more than makes up for it. 

• Tuchel's career in numbers after Three Lions appointment

  Exactly three months after Gareth Southgate announced he would step down as England's head coach, Thomas Tuchel has been named as his permanent successor.

  Tuchel has signed an 18-month contract to take charge of the Three Lions, which will begin on January 1, with interim boss Lee Carsley remaining at the helm until the conclusion of their Nations League campaign.

  The experienced German coach certainly ticks the FA's box in terms of appointing "a proven winner", having won league titles in two different countries as well as the Champions League and Club World Cup.

  Here, we look at the key numbers in the career of the former Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich coach.

  Third time lucky?

  Having been out of work since leaving Bayern at the end of last season, Tuchel becomes the 16th permanent manager to take charge of England.

  The first German to take over the Three Lions' reins, he is only the third non-English coach to do so, following in the footsteps of the late Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.

  The 51-year-old arrives in the job with a 57.3% win ratio across his career, winning 331 of his 578 matches.

  Unlike Eriksson and Capello, who were unable to add international silverware to their glittering CVs, Tuchel also takes up the role with previous experience of coaching in England following his 19-month spell with Chelsea.

  With England having reached two successive European Championship finals under Southgate, he will hope to provide them with that missing ingredient to get them over the line.
  

  Thomas Tuchel. Our #ThreeLions head coach from 2025.

  — England (@England) October 16, 2024

  Previous English experience

  Tuchel's time in England with Chelsea was relatively brief, lasting 589 days and 100 games, but it ultimately proved to be successful.

  A runner-up with PSG the previous year, he became the first coach to reach successive European finals with two different clubs when he guided the Blues to glory in 2021.

  Tuchel also added the Club World Cup later that year, and went on to be the first manager in the club's history to reach the final in each of the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.

  No Chelsea manager has reached more major domestic or European finals than the 51-year-old (four), whose 60% win rate is the fourth-highest of any Blues boss to take charge of at least 100 matches.
  
  Although, statistically, the west London side slightly tailed off defensively towards the end of his tenure. After registering 31 clean sheets in his first 50 matches in charge, they kept just 18 in his second 50 at the helm.

  Bittersweet Bayern tenure

  Under Tuchel, Bayern saw their 11-year grip on the Bundesliga title slip at the hands of Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen last season.

  Nevertheless, he still managed to make a positive impact at the Allianz Arena after replacing Julian Nagelsmann in March 2023.

  As Bayern dramatically snatched the 2022-23 title from under the noses of his former side Borussia Dortmund, he became only the second coach in Bundesliga history to take over a team in the second half of a season and win the league.

  The only previous case came in 1993-94, also with Bayern, when Franz Beckenbauer took over from Erich Ribbeck.

  Last season, he also became the first German coach to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League with three different clubs, as Bayern were denied a place in the final by eventual winners Real Madrid.

  Tuchel's impressive Champions League pedigree is further highlighted by the fact he has the third-highest win percentage in the tournament's history (59.7%), behind only Pep Guardiola (63.6%) and Louis van Gaal (60%).

  His appointment will see him link up once more with Three Lions skipper Harry Kane, who scored 44 goals in 45 games during his tenure at the Allianz Arena.