Thomas Tuchel, the 52-year-old German now tasked with winning the World Cup for England, was once a student working in a Stuttgart bar, serving drinks at the wildest hip-hop parties. In the late 1990s, having almost given up on football, Tuchel was earning a living behind the counter. That changed when Ralf Rangnick, his former coach at SSV Ulm, called him: "When I found out that he was working in a bar in Stuttgart to earn his living, I could hardly believe it," Rangnick told the BBC. "I said, 'Thomas, please, why don't you come to us in Stuttgart and work as a youth-team coach?'"
Tuchel had long admired Rangnick, the tactical pioneer who introduced zonal marking and "changed the way I watched football on television," Tuchel later said. But his own playing career was cut short by a knee injury. After an operation at 23, the cartilage damage left him barely able to walk up stairs, and his insurance did not cover the surgery, leaving him strapped for cash. He abandoned his degree in sport and English.
“Thomas Tuchel, once a bartender, now England manager, recalls Ivan Toney after clearing the air for World Cup.”
Nearly three decades later, Tuchel is England's first foreign manager, aiming to become the first foreign manager to win the World Cup. And he has just picked a squad that includes a striker he had previously written off: Ivan Toney.
Toney, now 30, had been out in the cold for 12 months. Tuchel was open about not liking Toney's attitude in training or around the camp during a qualifier and friendly in June 2025. The striker's move to Al-Ahli in the Saudi Pro League seemed to end his England hopes. But Toney never gave up. "When everybody was writing me off that I wasn't gonna be involved in the England picture," he said, "you have that spiritual feeling you can turn things round."
Tuchel later admitted he had to "clear the air" with Toney earlier this year. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dom Solanke failing to take their chances in March, Tuchel recalled the striker. Toney, whose career has taken him from Northampton to Barnsley, Shrewsbury, Wigan, Peterborough, and Brentford before Saudi, says he now feels he belongs. "I'm a lot more confident," he said. "We cleared things and I'm in a lot better head space."
Now Toney is on the plane to the United States for this summer's World Cup, ready to prove his doubters wrong once more.