Thomas Tuchel given boost as Chelsea goalkeeper coach quits for England role

Henrique Hilario ends 18-year association with Premier League club to join national team’s new set-up

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Thomas Tuchel has been given a boost before officially starting as England manager after Henrique Hilario handed in his resignation at Chelsea to become his goalkeeping coach.
Hilario has decided to leave Chelsea to work with Tuchel at England after the club made it clear that they did not want him to job-share with England.
Chelsea have not commented on Hilario’s departure, but sources have confirmed to Telegraph Sport that his resignation has been made official.
Tuchel officially starts work as England head coach on January 1 on an 18-month contract and currently has a backroom staff of Anthony Barry as his assistant, Hilario as goalkeeping coach and James Melbourne, who has already left Chelsea, where he was head of performance analysis.
The German worked with the pair at Chelsea, where he won the Champions League, and it is believed he wants a streamlined England staff.
Hilario’s move to join Tuchel ends an 18-year association at Chelsea, the club he joined as a player in 2006 and stayed at the end of his career to take on a coaching role.
The 49-year-old made 39 appearances for Chelsea and also won one international cap with Portugal.
Chelsea are unlikely to replace Hilario, given head coach Enzo Maresca has goalkeeping coach Michele De Bernardin and assistant Willy Caballero, who is a club goalkeeper with 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.
The FA will confirm Tuchel’s back-room team. It will not include Ashley Cole, who will step back to the Under-21s with Lee Carsley, or Joleon Lescott.
Tuchel and the FA will hold discussions over whether or not his new-look England back-room team will include a black and minority ethnic coach.
Talks are due to be held over the inclusion of a BAME coach to follow in the footsteps of Chris Powell, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and most recently Cole and Joleon Lescott, who has also been part of Carsley’s interim staff.
Under the FA and PFA’s Elite Coaching Placement Programme (ECCP), launched in 2018, England teams across all levels are committed to offering opportunities to BAME individuals, with a view to increasing diversity throughout top-level football.
Former England international Powell was appointed to former manager Gareth Southgate’s coaching staff in 2019 and worked at the European Championships and the 2022 World Cup with the national team.
Powell stepped down the following year and was replaced in Southgate’s staff by former Chelsea striker Hasselbaink, who was a popular member of the back-room team during this year’s European Championships in Germany.
The FA confirmed that Hasselbaink left his position after Southgate stood down as England manager, while Paul Nevin, who worked with the senior squad, took charge of the Elite League squad (formerly the Under-20s).
Failure to include a BAME coach on Tuchel’s staff for the 2026 World Cup campaign could prompt questions over the FA’s commitment to providing top-level opportunities at a time when the governing body have faced debate over the decision to appoint a foreign England manager.
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