Thomas Tuchel’s backroom staff has been bolstered by the addition of Henrique Hilário, who is ending his 18-year association with Chelsea to become England’s new goalkeeping coach. Tuchel, who worked with the former Portugal goalkeeper during his time at Stamford Bridge, begins his new role on 1 January. Martyn Margetson, England’s previous goalkeeping coach, left when Gareth Southgate stepped down as manager last summer.
Hilário was quickly targeted by Tuchel, who does not want a big backroom team, and it has not taken long for an agreement to be reached. Chelsea were reluctant to let Hilário do a job-share with England and that has led to him handing in his resignation.
The 49-year-old arrived at Chelsea as a player in 2006 and joined the coaching staff after retiring. Hilário, who was a popular figure with players, made 39 appearances for the club and earned one cap for Portugal. Tuchel has already returned to his former club to recruit James Melbourne, who was Chelsea’s head of performance analysis.
Anthony Barry is leaving Portugal to become Tuchel’s No 2 and Ashley Cole is due to drop back into England’s under-21 setup to assist Lee Carsley, who has revealed that Joleon Lescott will no longer be part of his backroom team.
Chelsea are unlikely to replace Hilário. Enzo Maresca has the goalkeeping coach Michele De Bernardin and assistant Willy Caballero, previously a goalkeeper at the club, on his staff. Ben Roberts is Chelsea’s head of global goalkeeping and James Russell is first-team assistant goalkeeping coach and head of academy goalkeeping.
