Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel is a model, former bartender, has a business degree and has turned down Bayern Munich
THOMAS TUCHEL is a man with many nicknames, but you never imagined the new Chelsea boss would see himself as Germany’s next top model.
The former PSG manager, who replaced Frank Lampard at Stamford Bridge on an 18-month contract, has previously posed for a New York fashion shoot for the men’s magazine Die Zeit.
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Tuchel, 47, had a stint as a bartender, when he was forced to retire from gambling at just 24 – which he admits has helped him grow into a more personable person. confident.
The German tactician is also one of the few football coaching breeds to hold a diploma – he juggled his job at Radio Bar in Stuttgart while studying business administration at the university.
The different facades of Tuchel paint not only an interesting personality, but also a personality that will illuminate the Premier League.
IT’S IN FASHION
In 2017, not many people could believe what they were seeing – certainly not German football fans anyway.
Skinny Tuchel, who is 6ft 2in tall, has been seen in trendy snaps for ZEITmagazin MANN pulling off her best David Gandy impression.
And to be fair to Tuchel, he seemed to be wearing a smart outfit while looking into the distance – and still managing to look usual thoughtful.
At the time, he was in between jobs after being sacked by Borussia Dortmund – just days after winning the German Cup.
However, the stylish shoot was clearly the perfect audition for the PSG job he got in 2018, with Paris being the homeland of fashion.
Tuchel had come a long way since his beginnings as a future football coach.
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EARLY RETIREMENT
In his early years, Tuchel rose through the ranks in Augsburg as a defender.
But at 19 he was released and he joined the Stuttgarter Kickers Second Division, playing eight times for the club.
Then, with his football career stalling, he joined the third level of SSV Ulm – where he was forced to hang up his shoes at the age of 24, after suffering a serious knee injury.
Instead of dwelling on his failed ambitions, Tuchel enrolled in a business administration course.
He supplemented his income by working at a trendy bar in town called Radio Bar. There he learned life skills – even if his cocktails weren’t up to par.
“I don’t want to have drunk the cocktails I mixed at the start,†he laughed in his conversation with ZEITmagazin MANN.
“I slowly developed a new confidence in myself at the bar, quarter by shift, night after night.
“I had passed the inhibitory threshold of asking strangers if they needed me. And suddenly I had the experience: ‘Your colleagues like you for who you are, they have no idea that you were a professional footballer once ‘”
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BACK TO DREAM
Despite Tuchel’s best efforts to get into academia and please customers at a bar, he still felt he had unfinished business with football.
He contacted then Stuttgart boss Ralf Rangnick, who until recently was head of sport and development at Red Bull GmbH, for a try with the club’s reserves, believing he was fit to play afterwards. nine months without kicking a ball.
However, chronic damage to the cartilage prevented Tuchel from showing his true potential.
Seeing a man with a football brain, Rangnick pushed Tuchel towards training – he followed the club’s academy coaches until he took over the U14 team in 2000.
Tuchel now felt that he had found his vocation.
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FROM BARMAN TO MAINZ HEAD COACH IN NINE YEARS
The steep trajectory that has taken Tuchel from bartender to Bundesliga head coach in just nine years is a testament to his drive to succeed.
In Stuttgart, under Hermann Badstuber, he eventually became an Under-19 assistant coach, helping the team win the Under-19 Bundesliga title in 2005.
In 2006 he returned to Augsburg as head coach, where he obtained his coach badges and became manager of the reserve team.
The ambitious Tuchel was on the move again – this time in Mainz in 2008, which he led to the U19 Bundesliga title the following year with a squad that included World Cup winner Andre Schurrle.
The German national team were desperate to name Tuchel as their Under-21 boss, but a better offer arrived.
When Mainz boss Jorn Andersen was sacked, Tuchel landed his first job as Bundesliga head coach.
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SUCCESS
Mainz playing his first Bundesliga season after being promoted the previous year, Tuchel guided the club to ninth place.
The following season, after an incredible streak of seven wins, including a 2-1 away win at Bayern Munich, they finished fifth to qualify for the Europa League for the first time in their history.
Tuchel was presented as a master tactician by the German press, with his offensive style hailed by football experts.
“There is definitely a style that was attributed to me, which we put on the table in Mainz: the pace to move forward and football focused on attack,” he told the newspaper. German die Zeit.
“I prefer certain qualities, an active style of play, a daring defense and a fast play on offense.”
While Tuchel was also ready to think outside the box when it came to rallying his players and getting them ready for the games.
Once, instead of having his players watch video analytics after a crushing loss, he motivated them with a powerful speech borrowed from Michael Jordan.
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“I’ve failed time and time again in my life. And that’s why I succeed,” he told his team.
Tuchel also hired René Maric, a young football fan who posted his thoughts on the games on a blog, to spot opposition teams and players.
WELCOME TO THE GRAND LEAGUE
After a 12-month sabbatical, Tuchel was appointed coach of Borussia Dortmund – following in Jurgen Klopp’s footsteps.
Young stars like Christian Pulisic and Ousmane Dembele have been nurtured and thrived under the new boss as the club finished second in the Bundesliga in 2016 in their second season.
However, winning his first trophy as a manager in 2017 was soured three days later when he was sacked. A strained relationship with the club’s hierarchy, notably CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke, was seen as the reason.
That didn’t stop PSG from taking a step for Tuchel, who previously reportedly refused Bayern Munich’s advances, in the summer of 2018 and he won Ligue 1 in his debut season.
But once again, tensions arose when he clashed with personalities, including sporting director Leonardo.
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Tuchel did not help his cause when he said he felt “[more like] a politician in sport “than a trainer. Leonardo added to Tuchel”[must] respect people above [him]”and said the comments were damaging to the club.
Although he recorded a domestic treble in his last season in Paris and was a Champions League finalist, he was sacked again.
One to say what he thinks raises the question of whether Stamford Bridge is the right setting for Thomas Tuchel. Time will tell if Abramovich made the right decision.
