How did you go from being a bar waiter to a Bundesliga coach in just nine years? Just ask Chelsea's current manager Thomas Tuchel, who spent a decade in charge of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, and has been honing his coaching skills before leading Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea to consecutive Champions League finals. After leading the team to the Champions League last year, the manager, who honed his coaching skills at Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund, was named FIFA's Best Coach of 2021.
Tuchel, a professional defender, joined the Augsburg Academy as a teenager but failed to get a chance in the first team and was released at the age of 19. He then signed for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga and has only made eight league appearances. Frustrated in the Bundesliga, Tuchel had to move to Bundesliga side Ulm in search of opportunities.
In 1998, Tuchel, who finally became the main player of the team, had to retire early due to a serious knee injury. Yes, the 24-year-old ended his mediocre playing career after 68 games in the Bundesliga. Until then, Tuchel had not yet been able to produce impressive signs of becoming a top tactical master in the future.
But his next step is even more extraordinary. Eager to prove that he could still succeed after leaving the green field, Tuchel went to university to major in business administration while also working part-time as a waiter in a bar.
However, football's appeal is still too strong for Tuchel. Tucher, who has recovered from a knee injury and is eager to make a name for himself in the green field, has made a final attempt to continue his professional career – he contacted his mentor, Ralph Lonnick. Ronnick coached Ulm from 1997 to 1999, and the two developed a good mentor-apprentice relationship during that time. Since then, Lonnick has had great success in coaching Schalke 04, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, which is a later story.
Nine months after retiring, Tuchel contacted Ronnick, who was then coaching in Stuttgart, for a trial at the Stuttgart reserve. Lonnick welcomed this, but Tuchel was ultimately left unsustainable by chronic cartilage injuries and said goodbye to the dream of a football superstar. In order to provide job opportunities for his disciples, Lonnick took the initiative to ask Tuchel if he could work in the coaching staff of the youth echelon.
Curious, Tuchel chose to stay, coaching the Stuttgart U14 junior team in 2000. From this time on, Tuchel officially entered the coaching industry and was out of control.
Under the guidance of former Bayern centre-back Bad stuber's late father Hermann-Bader Stubel, Tuchel quickly absorbed nutrients and significantly improved his coaching level, and in 2004 he was promoted to the Stuttgart U19 echelon as an assistant coach, and the following year he helped the team win the U19 league title.
Tuchel quickly proved his talent as a coach and, just nine years after working part-time at a bar, will enter the Bundesliga lounge for the first time as manager. This is all due to his shrewd tactical command, excellent personnel management skills, and the ability to smell and seize opportunities when they arise.
In 2006, Tuchel returned to Augsburg as manager of the U19, the same year he completed his coaching course and received his coaching certificate. In 2007/08 he coached the club's reserve team before moving to Mainz, where he won the U19 league title together in 2008/09 with future World Cup winner André Schüller.
His excellent coaching resume led him to two coaching offers in the summer of 2009: the German Football Association wanted to hire Tuchel as assistant coach of the U21, and Hoffenheim wanted to sign him as reserve manager.
However, Tuchel chose to stay, and for him neither offer was as attractive as the Bundesliga. On 3 August 2009, after Mainz was eliminated by the lower team Lübeck in the first round of the Bundesliga Cup, manager Anderson was fired on the spot by the club's top brass, and Tuchel, who was finally waiting for the opportunity, was appointed first-team manager of Mainz.
Although Mainz only advanced to the Bundesliga last season, Tuchel led the team to a remarkable ninth-place finish in his Bundesliga debut season. The following year he led Mainz to a seven-game winning streak at the start of the season, including a classic 2-1 away defeat to defending champions Bayern.
Mainz finished fifth in the Bundesliga at the end of the 2011/12 season, qualifying for the first time in their history, but they were soon eliminated by Romanian side Gasmeden in the third qualifying round of the Europa League.
During his time at Mainz, Tuchel earned a reputation as the most shrewd tactical guru among Germany's younger generation of coaches, often adapting to his opponents' circumstances while remaining true to his unique coaching philosophy.
"I'm sure this style is what I created, and it's what we'd expect from Mainz football: a positive forward and aggressive style of play," Tuchel said in an interview with the German newspaper Time magazine, "I prefer this quality of play and a positive football philosophy, as well as boldly pressing defensive strategies and attacking rhythms quickly." “
Tuchel also doesn't stick to traditional coaching styles. After a fiasco, instead of analyzing and reviewing the game footage in a step-by-step manner, he quoted a quote from NBA legend Michael Jordan to motivate the players: "I have suffered again and again in my life, which is why I have been able to succeed." “
Even more curious, Tuchel also hired a young amateur football analyst, René Malić, to scout and analyze opponents for him. At that time, Malić was just an avid fan, and would often publish his tactical analysis and viewing reports on the game on his blog.
Tuchel stumbled upon a report from Malić's spectators, which impressed him. Taking this as an opportunity, Tuchel helped Malić enter the profession as a professional coach, and now Malić is an assistant coach of Bundesliga Dortmund manager Marco Rozer.
To this day, Tuchel remains the most successful coach in Mainz history, with his mainz averaging points per game (1.41) even higher than Jurgen Klopp (1.13), who led Mainz to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2005/06.
After five years of success in Mainz, Tuchel gave himself a 12-month sabbatical before taking over Klopp's coaching whip again, this time in Dortmund.
In Westphalia, Tuchel nurtured young talents including Christian Pulisic and Osman Dembele to become world-class wingers, helping Borussia Dortmund to runner-up in the Bundesliga in 2015/16 and lead the team to the German Cup the following year.
Tuchel once again copied his trajectory in Mainz, surpassing Klopp to become the most successful coach in Dortmund history, averaging 2.09 points per game in the Bundesliga, until Lucian Favre, who coached Dort a year later, once raised the bar to a higher level – 2.11 points (after being fired by Dort, Favre led the team to average the same points per game as Tuchel).
Tuchel did not coach long at Dort, and after two seasons he parted ways with the Hornets. Nine years after his first head coaching role, he was hired as manager of Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2018 and won the Ligue 1 title in his debut season in Ligue 1. The following season, Tuchel led the team to the triple crown of Ligue 1, the French Cup and the League Cup, and then led Paris to the first Champions League final in the team's history. In the final match against Bayern, Paris Saint-Germain was killed by his own youth product Kingsley Koeman, and missed the Big Ears Cup.
In January 2021 Tuchel began coaching Chelsea. Although the job of succeeding club legend Frank Lampard may have looked tough, Tuchel has done a miracle, bringing the club back from ninth in the Premier League back to the Champions League qualification zone and leading the team to the Champions League final for two consecutive years as manager.
In the final, with the help of former Bundesliga stars Pulisic, Havertz and Werner, Tuchel led Chelsea to defeat former Bayern boss Pep Guardiola's Manchester City at the Porto Dragon Stadium, winning the greatest glory of European football. He has since won the 2021 FIFA Coach of the Year Award for his achievements, all in recognition of Tuchel's top-flight coaching career starting in Mainz.