Southgate, Deschamps, Van Gaal: 2022 World Cup's highest-paid managers

With the Women’s European Championships dominating the summer football calendar, the 2022 Men’s World Cup will close out a hectic year of football.

Taking place in the middle of the typical European football season, the Qatar World Cup begins on 21 November and will wrap up with the final on 18 December – exactly a week before Christmas Day.

And while it’s been difficult to find excitement for a World Cup that is taking place in the middle of the club season, we’ll all be riddled with tournament football fever before we know it.

In what will be the final World Cup to feature 32 teams before the competition moves to a 48 team format in 2026, current holders France have a tough task of defending their crown with the competition as high as ever.

Argentina have looked completely revived under manager Lionel Scaloni and head in as 2021 Copa America winners, while their long time rivals Brazil also possess a mighty squad and are expected to go deep into the tournament.

England reached the semi-final of the 2018 tournament where they were knocked out by eventual runners up Croatia, and were beaten on penalties in the final of Euro 2020 by Italy, who astoundingly failed to qualify for the World Cup after being crowned European champions.

If nothing else, it will certainly be fascinating to watch the tournament unfold with nations trying to pull to gather momentum while pulling players away from their domestic season so suddenly.

A Winter World Cup is something we have never seen before, and the managers tasked with defying the odds and trying to go all the way under such unusual circumstances certainly have their work cut out for them.

It makes sense, then, that those managers that will be in the dugouts in Qatar this Winter are