Gareth Southgate sticks to business and leadership and shuns football return
Sir Gareth Southgate insists he is happy to keep a return to football management on ice and focus on delivering lessons in leadership to business and wider society.
Southgate walked away from the England job after eight years in 2024, having taken the team to two major finals in a spell noted for repairing the team’s culture as well as improved results.
The 55-year-old has been periodically linked with club jobs, including Manchester United, but maintains that he currently has little inclination to return to football’s front line.
Southgate has written a book on leadership entitled Dear England and continues to work on the speaker circuit, delivering the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby Lecture earlier this year.
“The great thing with England is there’s this higher purpose,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“I joined the FA to try and help English football become better, to try to help youth development in particular. I somehow stumbled into the first team manager’s job and we had a pretty good period. But I’m not desperate to stay in football. I’ve had 37 years.
“You can never say never because I’ve just seen Martin O’Neill at his age [73] go to Celtic but it’s not something that’s high on my agenda.
“I’m enjoying the work around leadership, I’m enjoying my work with young people – I’m very determined to make a difference there – so I’m very relaxed about not being in football at the moment.”
Southgate available for corporate speaking
Since stepping down from England, Southgate has stayed somewhat connected to football by accepting a role as a Uefa technical observer but has otherwise enjoyed a break.
He is a keynote speaker for hire on “leadership, change management, teamwork, culture and resilience to the corporate and academic worlds”, and has appeared at investment summits.
Southgate believes the impact he helped to foster on the perception and culture of the England team can be applied more broadly during a period of societal polarisation.
“We had a huge disconnect with the public when we started,” he added on Radio 4’s Today Programme.
“People saw us as high-ego players but we were able to turn that around. I saw the power that the team had to bring people together of every community.
“Economically lots of places are in tough situations now and that’s going to prompt desires for change. But I have seen the ability to unite the country.”