Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel (born 29 August 1973) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich.

He is widely regarded as a tactical innovator in modern football and one of the best coaches in the world.

Born in Krumbach, Tuchel retired as a footballer at age 25 due to a knee cartilage injury.

Tuchel moved to the academy at FC Augsburg in 1988, however, he never appeared for the first team, being released when he turned 19.

There, coach Heiner Schuhmann's evaluation of Tuchel during his tenure at Augsburg noted he "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, 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, at the age of 25, after suffering a knee cartilage injury.

He began his coaching career in 2000 as a youth coach at VfB Stuttgart, and in 2009, after a one-year period at FC Augsburg II, he was hired by Mainz 05.

Tuchel began his coaching career in 2000, hired by Ralf Rangnick as youth team coach at VfB Stuttgart, where he aided in the development of future first team players, namely Mario Gómez and Holger Badstuber.

He coached the under-19 side of the club to the Under 19 Bundesliga title in the 2004–05 campaign.

He left after that season, as the club tired of his personality and chose not to renew his contract.

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 management after accepting the position as first team coach at FC Augsburg II for the 2007–08 season.

At the end of the 2007–08 season, Tuchel's Augsburg II finished fourth.

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.

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.

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 Under 19 Bundesliga with the under-19 side.

According to club executive Christian Heidel, Tuchel's perfectionism, going as far as to analyze 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 utilize 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.

His tactics of 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 games in their first seven, 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.

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.

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.

In the 2012–13 season, Mainz would go on to repeat their thirteenth-placed finish from the season prior.

He departed Mainz in 2014 and was appointed at Borussia Dortmund in 2015 and won the DFB-Pokal before being dismissed in 2017.

He 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 manager of Chelsea in 2021 and won the Champions League in his debut season, being named The Best FIFA Football Coach.

After disagreements with Chelsea owner Todd Boehly, Tuchel was dismissed in 2022.

He signed with Bayern Munich in 2023 and won the Bundesliga title.

Born in Krumbach, Bavaria, Tuchel starred as a member of his local club, TSV Krumbach, coached by his father Rudolf.