The Champions League is firmly in the hands of German coaches, who have disenchanted the absolute greats in the industry. Tuchel helped a complete change.
Thomas Tuchel Whipped the fans in the stands in Porto, freaked out on the sidelines, sank to his knees and showed emotions like seldom before. After the final whistle, he was as happy as a child – and at the moment of triumph gave private insights on the Sky microphone. He thinks of his 90-year-old grandmother in Germany in front of the television. To his wife, who had already accompanied him in the regional league at FC Augsburg and “wondered who she was with.” On this long journey, his family believed in him more than Tuchel himself.
What a change!
The old Tuchel was considered to be humanly difficult, obsessive, sometimes ignorant – and has obviously given way to the new Tuchel. The popular figure. And since yesterday evening and the 1-0 against Manchester City also Champions League winners. Thomas Tuchel was the first coach ever to make it to the Champions League final with two different clubs in two consecutive years. Last year with Paris, now with the Londoners. He has the FC Chelsea in six months from the gray midfield of the English Premier League to fourth place and now led to the greatest success in the club’s history alongside the first victory in the premier class in 2012.
He made the triple perfect for the German coaches in the Champions League. To Jürgen Klopp with Liverpool FC 2019 and Hansi Flick with the FC Bayern In 2020, Tuchel is the third German coach in a row to win the Champions League.
It is the era of the German coach. You are the best in the world. Tuchel is one of them – and has the era of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti or Zinedine Zidane. The German trainer trio has demystified the former top trainers in the world.
Because:
Guardiola last won the Champions League in 2011, ten years ago. Both FC Bayern and Manchester City signed Guardiola to win this title. He failed in the eighth, quarter or semi-finals, gambled away with tactics or line-up. For the Manchester City team, he has been able to spend almost a billion euros (you read that right) in transfer fees for new players alone since 2016. Nevertheless, he was defeated by Tuchel and Chelsea FC three times in three games this season, although Tuchel did not come until the end of January and the team was not yet able to shape the team according to his ideas. He didn’t sign a single player himself. Will Guardiola come back after this renewed disappointment? At least in this constellation with Manchester City, that’s hard to imagine.
Mourinho won 2004 with Porto and 2010 with Inter Milan the Champions League. Most recently he was sacked at Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur because he missed the target everywhere. He recently did not even take part in the Champions League – and has just started a new attempt at AS Roma in Italy. Again outside the Champions League.
Ancelotti is considered one of the most successful coaches in football history. He won the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007 – and again with Real Madrid 2014. Since then? If he was fired at Real, then failed at Bayern. He was then dismissed in Naples after a series of defeats – and ended up in 10th place in the Premier League with Everton FC last season.
Zidane managed the Champions League title hat-trick with Real Madrid from 2016 to 2018. So he is the last non-German coach to win the Champions League – and is at least disenchanted at the moment. After taking a break in 2018, he returned to the executive chair at Real. However, the usual success did not materialize. Real ended the current season without a title, which is a catastrophe for Los Blancos. Champions in Spain became city rivals, of all things Atletico Madrid. Zidane stepped down for the second time since 2018. His future? Uncertain.
The German coaches are completely different: Klopp won the first English championship in 30 years with Liverpool after winning the Champions League in 2019 the following year – and in the current season with a sensational final spurt made the Champions League qualification, which due to many injured service provider no one would have thought possible. Klopp is a hero in Liverpool.
Flick had to face Bayern in the Champions League due to the failure of super striker Robert Lewandowski Paris St. Germain to give up, but became the superior German champion and is now moving to the DFB as national coach. What remains are the seven titles he won in less than two years. Six of them in one season. It only happened once before – when Guardiola was still with FC Barcelona was and also won all possible trophies in one season.
Now Tuchel has also duped his former teacher Guardiola and made it to the throne in European football. The prospects for the German coach could hardly be better. Tuchel can shape an era with Chelsea like Klopp is doing in Liverpool. And maybe win Julian Nagelsmann in the coming season also the fourth German coach in a row the Champions League Cup.
Compared to Ancelotti, Zidane or Mourinho, Nagelsmann has a decisive advantage. He is allowed to compete in the Champions League with FC Bayern.
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