Tuchel conducted secret negotiations with the Nati

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Thomas Tuchel (49), this name stands for success. He shook up the Bundesliga with Mainz, led Dortmund to a cup win, reached the Champions League final with Paris SG and even won the premier league with Chelsea.

Now he takes over at Bayern Munich. And unlike Julian Nagelsmann (35), Tuchel has a lot of ties to Switzerland.

In 2014 he almost became national coach. Ottmar Hitzfeld resigned after the World Cup in Brazil – and Nati delegate Peter Stadelmann held secret talks with Tuchel. When Blick addressed Tuchel at the stadium – he watched the Nati against Lithuania a few weeks later in St. Gallen – he said: “I don’t want to say anything about that.” Stadelmann was also undecided – in the end Vladimir Petkovic was chosen.

The reasons at the time: Petkovic knew Swiss football better and had a greater bond with the country. Moreover, the negotiations with him were apparently well advanced when Tuchel became an issue.

The relationship with Martin Schmidt

A few years earlier, in 2010, Tuchel brought a Swiss player to Mainz. Tuchel had played with the reserves against Thun’s U21. There on the sidelines: Martin Schmidt.

Tuchel recalled in the “Walliser Bote”: “We traveled with a team bus and a full coaching staff, on the other hand Martin was responsible for everything with his U21s. That impressed me – in addition to the way he let his side attack performance.”

Schmidt becomes Tuchel’s assistant. And he recalls a legendary shared experience outside of football. «When I was Thomas Tuchel’s assistant near Mainz, we went to an alpine hut in Valais. We also ate fondue and raclette, which are not suitable for athletes, but you cannot put spelled noodles in front of the players on such an excursion. Then we dressed the new players in yodelling costumes and practiced the Valais anthem, which we sang. Very nice, as a tenor of the Valais yodel club Ahori it was less difficult for me than for others. At 11 or 12 we took a nightcap and unsuspectingly sent the players to bed.” Why no idea? “Because at 3:30 we knocked on her door and woke her up. 3000 meters to see the sunrise from the top. That season we reached the Europa League with Mainz 05.”

Schmidt, later Bundesliga coach at Mainz, Wolfsburg and Augsburg and now sports director at Mainz, describes Tuchel as a friend and mentor. He says: “I’d be lying if I said Thomas didn’t infect me with his football fever.”

Zeidler was his roommate

Another coach in Switzerland who has a close relationship with Tuchel is Peter Zeidler (60). The trainer from St. Gallen did the trainer training with him in 2006. “We took the train to Cologne together on Monday and back on Friday,” he says. “We also shared the room together.”

He says of Tuchel’s abilities: “He stood out even then. He was the student with the ripped pants and he was a few minutes late. But you could just tell from the ideas that he was further and more resourceful than the others, to which I also belonged.”

Zeidler adds: “He was further, how he sees football, how he understands things. He made a huge impression on me. It is therefore only logical to me that he is now one of the crème de la crème of European coaches. He is one of three world coaches alongside Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola.

In 2018, before Zeidler goes to St. Gallen, he should become Tuchel’s assistant at Paris SG. The club is very interested in him. Tuchel is looking for a man who speaks German and French. But Zeidler has been the head coach for a long time, so the deal ultimately falls through.

Zeidler is in regular contact with Tuchel’s current assistants, Zsolt Löw and Arno Michel. “Two excellent assistant coaches. Zsolt Löw was my assistant at Liefering.”

Now they go to Bayern with Tuchel. Zeidler says: «Thomas grew up in the Munich area. For him it is now also the fulfillment of a dream to be able to go to Bayern. It’s a great solution for him, he will make Bayern even more successful.”

Good omen for summer?

And then Tuchel made another Swiss No. 1 at Dortmund: he benched legend Roman Weidenfeller in 2015 and made Roman Bürki the new No. 1. Perhaps a good omen for Yann Sommer, who is expected to battle with Manuel Neuer.

Source : Blick