The news is in and England fans are reeling: it looks like German football mastermind Thomas Tuchel is set to be the new England manager.
The new boss of the team will be taking over a team in turmoil. Gareth Southgate resigned after the Three Lions lost to Spain in the final of the Euros – and yet, many the appointment has been controversial.
England fans are furious that a German – a longtime rival nation – is in charge of the national team, and yet Tuchel’s appointment may yet be overshadowed by his turbulent love life.
From his 13 year marriage to becoming a subject of dressing room gossip, here’s what to know about the 51 year old’s tangled romantic past, which has proved a problem on the pitch before.
The marriage
Tuchel’s former wife, Sissi, was a journalist for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. They met in Germany before getting married in 2009; she gave up her job to raise their two young daughters, Emma and Kim.
When Tuchel was the manager for Paris Saint-Germain, the family lived in the Hauts-de-Seine district of Paris, and when he moved to Chelsea, she moved the family to join him in August 2021, seven months later.
Sissi has stuck by Tuchel: when he left Dortmund in 2017, she reportedly went to Paris ahead of him to find a place for them all to live. She is also believed to been a valuable advisor to her husband, offering him guidance on his career choices and on the managerial jobs he was offered.
“Sissi is no fool, she isn't your archetypal footballer's wife, she is a clever woman,” a source told the Daily Mail.
Despite this, she rarely attended matches – though she was seen running across the pitch and into her husband’s arms after Chelsea’s 1-0 Champions League win over Manchester City in 2021.
The split
In April 2022, court documents show that Sissi filed for divorce after 13 years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split.
“Sissi and Thomas have tried to avoid splitting but in the end there was no other way,” a source told the Daily Mail at the time, adding that they had “exhausted all avenues”.
“It is very sad and now it is all about making sure their daughters are the top priority. Papers were lodged last week to get the divorce under way.”
Their breakup contributed to the fraying relationship between Tuchel and the Chelsea management team, especially Chelsea owner Todd Boehly.
Despite a string of footballing victories (including steering the team to two FIFA Club World Cup victories), the manager was already at odds with the team due to his erratic behaviour. The Athletic reports that Boehly described Tuchel as a "nightmare" to deal with on recruitment to a Premier League executive; indeed, Tuchel apparently delegated his attendance at transfer meetings to his agent.
Then rumours started circulating of a new relationship with younger Brazilian girlfriend Natalie Max. Things got so bad that Tuchel’s love life was allegedly the subject of gossip within the Chelsea locker room.
Eventually, in September 2022, Tuchel was let go from Stamford Bridge.
“There's a lot more behind the scenes of Tuchel that would make most people's eyes water as to the reasons why Todd Boehly made that decision and it wasn't just a case of losing to Dinamo Zagreb, it was case of a whole raft of other things,” broadcaster Simon Jordan said about the dismissal on talkSPORT.
“But it opened my eyes and I would've done exactly the same thing as Todd Boehly did which is, 'you can go mate'.”
The new romance
Only three months after Sissi filed for divorce, and while he was still at Chelsea, Tuchel was pictured in July 2022 with a new girlfriend: Brazilian 37-year-old Natalie Max.
The pair were pictured on a boat in Sardinia and were reportedly staying in a £20,000 a night private villa. A mother of two, she’s a director at consulting agency Natexo and 13 years younger than the new England manager.
“They've been dating since May and things are already getting serious between them,” a source told Mail Online at the time; other sources told The Sun that the pair “held hands at every opportunity” and looked “very much in love.”
“Natalie flew to Sardinia to join Thomas on their first holiday and they've been spending a lot of quality time together in west London, where she lives with her two children and dog,” the source told the Mail.
“Tuchel is really lovely and has made Natalie's friends feel welcome, he's definitely in this for the long haul.”
It looks like we have a new First Lady of English football; here’s hoping Tuchel’s tenure stays drama-free both on and off the pitch.
