Gareth Southgate awarded knighthood for services to football

The ex-England boss was presented the honour by Prince William.

The 54-year-old was recognised in the King’s New Year’s Honours and was awarded the title today by Prince William. 

Southgate is the most successful England manager in the last 30-years, having led The There Lions to the final of successive Euros tournaments as well as the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup. 

He follows Sir Walter Winterbottom, Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson to become the fourth England head coach to receive the honour. 

The decision to name Southgate as manager in November 2016 initially came as a shock. He was promoted to first-team head coach from his role leading England's under 23s-side, after Sam Allerdyce was sacked following just three games in charge. 

Southgate went on to lead the team in more than 100-games over eight years.  

The former Middlesborough, Aston Villa, and Crystal Palace player proved any doubters wrong straight away — at the 2018 World Cup he led England to their best performance at a major tournament since Italia 1990 where England famously lost out to Germany in the semi-finals. In 2018 it was a 2-1 loss to Croatia that cost England a place in the final.

Southgate's success in the Russia World Cup was seen by many as an opportunity for the Englishman to finally achieve closure on the darkest chapter of his playing career. During the 1994 European Championships, the then 24-year-old missed the decisive penalty in a semi-final shootout against Germany. During a 1996 interview Southgate admitted he feared "everything I’ve done so far and maybe in the future could be overshadowed." by the penalty miss. His brilliant success as England head coach finally put those bad memories to bed.

The closest England came to breaking their more than 70-year wait for a trophy came under Southgate during Euro 2020, as The Three Lions were narrowly beaten by Italy on penalties at a final hosted at Wembley Stadium. 

Southgate eventually left his role last year, and was succeeded by Thomas Tuchel. The German former Chelsea, PSG and Borussia Dortmund head coach will aim to take The Three Lions one step further than his predecessor ever managed, at the World Cup Finals in the USA, Canada, and Mexico next summer.