Chelsea have shown the door to manager Thomas Tuchel, 49, after suffering a defeat at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb in their Champions League Group E match on September 6. Zagreb’s Croatian left winger Mislav Oršić scored the only goal of the match.
The Blues are currently sixth on the Premier League table after registering three wins, one draw, and two losses from six matches till date.
Who is Thomas Tuchel?
Thomas Tuchel is a German football manager who has coached sides like Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain before plying his trade in the Premier League with Chelsea. He helped the London club win the Champions League in 2020-21.
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Tuchel was born in the town of Krumbach in Bavaria. He started playing for the local club TSV Krumbach where his father was the coach. In his senior career, Tuchel played for the Stuttgarter Kickers and SSV Ulm before retiring as player at the age of 25 due to a knee cartilage injury.
Former Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick gave Tuchel his first coaching job as an assistant coach for VfB Stuttgart. He left the club in 2005 after the latter refused to renew his contract.
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Following this, Tuchel returned to FC Augsburg. He had been enrolled in the club’s youth academy and returned as the youth co-ordinator. He was soon promoted to the position of manager of the reserve team.
After his stint with Augsburg, Bundesliga club Mainz 05 hired Tuchel to be their first-team manager. In his first season (2009-10), the club finished in the ninth spot on the league table. In the following two seasons, the club finished fifth and 13th on the league table, respectively.
Tuchel moved on to Borussia Dortmund in 2015 after Jurgen Klopp quit the club’s managerial role. At Dortmund, Tuchel managed to win the DFB Pokal in 2016-17 after securing the runners-up spot in the tournament the previous season.
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PSG was the next destination for Tuchel, where he coached superstars of the game like Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Jr. PSG won the Ligue 1 twice under him and were also the Champions League runners-up in 2019-20.
Tuchel initially signed an 18-month contract with Chelsea after Frank Lampard was fired as the club’s manager. Besides the Champions League, Chelsea also won the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup under Tuchel.
Individual honours followed for Tuchel after his success at Chelsea. In 2021, he was awarded the German Football Manager of the Year, UEFA Men’s Coach of the Year, IFFHS Men’s World’s Best Club Coach, and The Best FIFA Football Coach.
