Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel (German pronunciation: [ˈtoːmas ˈtʊxl̩]; born 29 August 1973) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the England national team.

Born in Krumbach in Bavaria, Tuchel retired as a professional footballer at age 25 due to a knee cartilage injury and began his coaching career in 2000 as a youth coach at VfB Stuttgart. In 2009, after a one-year period as the head coach of FC Augsburg II, he was hired by Mainz 05, leaving the club in 2014. He was appointed at Borussia Dortmund in 2015 and won the DFB-Pokal before being dismissed in 2017. Tuchel was hired by Paris Saint-Germain in 2018 and won two league titles, including a domestic quadruple in his second season, and guided the club to its first UEFA Champions League final.

Tuchel became head coach at Chelsea in 2021 and won the Champions League in his debut season, being named The Best FIFA Football Coach. He also won the UEFA Super Cup and Chelsea's first FIFA Club World Cup. After disagreements with club management, Tuchel was dismissed in 2022. He signed with Bayern Munich in 2023 and won the Bundesliga before being dismissed in 2024. He began his role as England head coach in January 2025.

Playing career

Born in Krumbach, Bavaria, Tuchel starred as a member of his local club, TSV Krumbach, coached by his father, Rudolf. Tuchel moved to the FC Augsburg academy in 1988, however, he never appeared for the first team, being released at age 19. Speaking on Tuchel's playing career with the club, youth coordinator Heiner Schuhmann said, "[Tuchel] was a passionate player who gave his all but clashed with his teammates because he was assertive and demanding, which didn't always go over well". After being released from Augsburg, Tuchel joined 2. Bundesliga side Stuttgarter Kickers in 1992.

Tuchel played eight games during the 1992–93 season. After the 1993–94 season, he was dropped from Kickers' first team, and joined Regionalliga Süd side SSV Ulm, coached by Hermann Badstuber, the father of Holger Badstuber, whom Tuchel would later manage at youth level. Playing as a central defender, he played for SSV Ulm until being forced to retire in 1998, aged 25, after suffering a knee cartilage injury. He then worked as a bartender until 2000.

Coaching career

Early career

Tuchel began his coaching career in 2000, hired by Ralf Rangnick as youth team coach at VfB Stuttgart, where he aided in player development; Mario Gómez and Holger Badstuber became club regulars under him. Tuchel coached the club's under-19 side to the Bundesliga title in the 2004–05 campaign. He left after that season, with the club opting not to renew his contract, citing his abrasive coaching style and demeanour. In 2005, Tuchel returned to Augsburg, with club sporting director Andreas Rettig noting the club's admiration of Tuchel's tactical discipline led to him being appointed youth team coordinator.

He was hired despite lacking a UEFA Pro Licence, which he gained in a six-and-a-half month course in Cologne under Erich Rutemöller. Tuchel held the position as coordinator for three years, transitioning into senior club management after accepting the position as first team coach at FC Augsburg II for the 2007–08 season. With Augsburg II, he coached a team which included Julian Nagelsmann, himself an injury-prone defender, who transitioned to a coaching career after Tuchel instructed him to scout for the club in 2008. Tuchel also garnered a reputation for his combustibility towards referees during games, often receiving fines from the Bavarian Football Association (BFV) as a result. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Tuchel's Augsburg II finished fourth.

Mainz 05

Tuchel's time as the coach of Augsburg II impressed many top-level German clubs, and he went on to be appointed by Bundesliga club Mainz 05 in 2009, replacing Jorn Andersen. Having signed an initial two-year contract, he was promoted into the role after acting as a youth coach at Mainz for the previous 12 months, during which he had won the U-19 Bundesliga. According to club executive Christian Heidel, Tuchel's perfectionism, going as far as to analyse pitch maintenance prior to a game against Olympiacos, contributed to his eventual appointment.

The composition of the squad was seen in Tuchel's tactical approach at Mainz, as despite possessing technically inferior players, he instructed them to utilise long distribution and focus on pressing off the ball, typically overloading one portion of the opposition half in order to create less space to generate counter-attacking opportunities, as relentless high-pressure would create chances by dispossessing or forcing errors from the opposition. An initial disciplinarian, Tuchel reportedly forbade his players to leave the canteen while others were still eating, deeming it ill-mannered. Tuchel's tactics based on pressing and positional play led Mainz to a ninth-placed finish in his first season as manager.

In the following campaign, Tuchel's Mainz enjoyed a perfect start to the season, winning seven of their first seven games, including an away victory over Bayern Munich. This coincided with Tuchel's employment of René Marić and Martin Rafelt, founders of the tactics blog Spielverlagerung, to compile occasional scouting reports on Mainz's opponents. Tuchel eventually led the team to a fifth-placed finish as the club improved by 11 points to qualify for the third-qualifying round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. Only four Bundesliga sides scored more goals than Mainz in the 2010–11 campaign, who had scored 52 goals in total. Of those goals, fifteen had been scored by rising star André Schürrle, and ten by Sami Allagui, who was a key part of Tuchel's pressing machine.

Mainz fell to a thirteenth-placed finish the following season, having notably lost Schürrle to Bayer Leverkusen in the summer. Allagui's lack of form added to Mainz's issues in attack, although new signing Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was able to score ten goals, and midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger's organization and discipline helped the team and "marked him out" as a future club captain. Mainz suffered an early exit in the Europa League, and ended the season with 39 points, the lowest total during Tuchel's spell at the club. In the 2012–13 season, Mainz would go on to repeat their thirteenth-placed finish from the season prior. Despite a poor start and end to the season, there were significantly fewer struggles than in the previous campaign, and the team finished six points below seventh place. Ádám Szalai, who netted thirteen times, solved the goal-scoring issues up front, while Nicolai Müller and Andreas Ivanschitz scored eight and seven goals respectively. Mainz was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal. In what would turn out to be his final season with the club, Tuchel led Mainz to a seventh-place finish, qualifying for the group stages of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League. At the beginning of the season, he had brought in Japanese forward Shinji Okazaki. Deployed in a central striking role, he went on to have a prolific season, scoring 15 goals in the Bundesliga, a record for a Japanese player.

Despite approaches by Schalke 04 and Bayer Leverkusen for his services in the latter-half of the 2013–14 season, Tuchel remained at Mainz until the end of the campaign. However, in May 2014, he asked to be released from his contract, later stating that he "couldn't see how [the team] could reinvent [itself] once more the coming summer". Tuchel explained that he had already made the decision to leave Mainz at the end of the season in autumn of 2013. Mainz initially refused to release him from his contract, but on 11 May 2014, he was allowed to step down. Tuchel concluded his Mainz career with a record of 72 wins, 46 draws, and 64 losses, from 182 games, with a win percentage of 39.56%; only the big four German clubs — Bayern Munich, Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen — amassed more league points than him, and he achieved a better points record at Mainz than Jürgen Klopp.

Borussia Dortmund

2015–2016: League runner-up

In April 2015, coach Jürgen Klopp announced that he would leave Borussia Dortmund following the 2014–15 season. Dortmund, inquiring over the availability of various coaches, quickly decided on Tuchel, eager to incorporate a similar press-based footballing philosophy made a club trademark under Klopp. Tuchel's appointment as the club's new head coach for the following season occurred on 19 April. Signing a three-year deal effective from 1 July, he returned to coaching after over a year without a club. Both Klopp and Tuchel completed the same path of moving from Mainz to Dortmund.