LONDON: Gareth Southgate has signed a new contract to remain in charge of England until 2022 and the World Cup finals in Qatar.

Assistant Steve Holland has also agreed a new deal with the Football Association for the same duration.

Southgate, 48, who guided England to the World Cup semi-finals in the summer, said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead the national team through the next two major tournaments.

“The job remains an incredible privilege and a true honour. Experiencing at first hand how the nation united behind the team this summer was something special and it will be great to see how far this young squad can go in the years to come.

“I must acknowledge the hard work and commitment of my staff and the players over the last two years.

“I have learned a great deal from them and their passion and professionalism in representing England has been an inspiration to my own work.

“In particular, Steve Holland who I’m pleased to be continuing to work alongside through to 2022. I would also like to thank Martin (Glenn, FA chief executive), Dan Ashworth and the FA board for their support since my original appointment.”

Former England Under-21 boss Southgate signed an initial four-year contract in 2016 after replacing Sam Allardyce, who lasted just 67 days in the job.

Southgate has been rewarded after England reached the last four in Russia in July.

The team lost 2-1 to Croatia after extra-time before being beaten 2-0 by Belgium in the third-place play-off.

England face Croatia behind closed doors in Rijeka on October 12 in the Nations League because the World Cup runners-up are completing a stadium ban after having a swastika on their pitch in 2015.

Southgate’s side then travel to Seville to play Spain, who won 2-1 at Wembley in England’s first Nations League match last month.

The England squad includes youngsters Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Mason Mount (Derby) and James Maddison (Leicester) all for the first time.

Southgate said: “We’ve got a few injuries in the midfield in particular – Dele (Alli), Jesse (Lingard) and Ruben (Loftus-Cheek) have been missing – and Fabian Delph, so there is an opportunity there.

“Then we have a decision on which way we want to use that opportunity. We think there are some exciting young players that we’ve been tracking, either through their clubs or our junior teams.

“It is a great opportunity for us to look at them. We feel that we are always conscious of the balance of how quickly we put those young players in and raise expectation around them and make sure that we don’t detrimentally affect their development.

“But we think they are performing well with their clubs, they’re confident players.

“We’d like to work with them now – they get an understanding of how we work, we get a closer look at them.

“Quite a few of them have trained with us at various times here anyway so we’re excited to see them.”

Harry Winks, capped once, has returned to the senior team the day after starting for Tottenham against Barcelona in the Champions League, while uncapped Watford midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah is back in the squad after recovering from a long-term knee injury.

Ross Barkley’s upturn in fortunes at Chelsea means he is in line to win his first cap since the friendly against Australia in May 2016.

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