Five things you may not know about Thomas Tuchel from younger Brazilian girlfriend to former modelling career
THOMAS TUCHEL has agreed to take over as England manager.
The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss is expected to be announced as Gareth Southgate’s permanent successor this week.
Tuchel, 51, has been in talks with the FA over the role after Lee Carsley failed to impress as interim manager over the last two international breaks.
The German has been without a job since he was sacked as Bayern boss last summer, but will now land one of the biggest roles in international football.
Tuchel has a track record in tournament football, leading Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2021 and winning the German Cup during a spell with Borussia Dortmund.
Everyone knows his tactical pedigree on the sidelines, but here’s five things you may not know about the new man in the Wembley hot-seat…
FASHION-FORWARD
Tuchel doesn’t just get his teams playing attractive football, but also looks good while he’s doing it.
In fact the 6ft 2in gaffer even earned himself a fleeting side-hustle as a model during his time as manager of Borussia Dortmund in 2017.
Coming towards the end of a successful spell with the Black and Yellow, Tuchel starred in a trendy campaign for German magazine ZEITmagazin MANN.
Perhaps it was his stylish clobber in the photoshoot that caught the eyes of Paris Saint-Germain – with Paris being the home of fashion.
Tuchel landed the PSG job the following year in 2018, where he went on to win two league titles with the Parisians.
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EARLY RETIREMENT
Not every manager has a glittering playing career before making their mark as a coach like Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola.
Tuchel is the perfect example of that, having been forced to retire at just 24 YEARS OLD.
The former defender rose through the ranks at Augsburg as a kid but was released at the age of 19.
He soon moved to second division Stuttgarter Kickers, playing eight times for the club.
Then, with his career in football stalling, he joined third tier SSV Ulm – where he was forced to hang up his boots aged 24, after suffering a serious knee injury.
Maybe the likes of Ryan Mason and Jack Wilshere will soon be following in Tuchel’s footsteps.
ANDY DILLON: Thomas Tuchel has all the ingredients to become a classic England manager – tactical nous, drive and a tangled love life
By Andy Dillon
THOMAS TUCHEL possesses all the ingredients to become a classic England manager.
Tactical nous, drive, energy, experience – a tangled love life.
English football should welcome back the most explosive, dynamic, charismatic and impossibly tall and gangly coach to have lit up the Premier League.
Chelsea’s colourful former boss has been leading a settled life in Munich of late.
Far enough away from ex-wife Sissi but close enough to see his two daughters.
Walking his dog in the streets in the east of Germany’s most fashionable city, residing in the posh Bogenhausen area. Living relatively quietly with his Brazilian girlfriend.
Tuchel is a vastly different personality to the man who led England quietly but assuredly to the brink of World Cups and European Championships.
An excitable nature can make him hard to handle for those seeking calm and who like to impose their way on a manager they view very much as an underling.
Read more on why Tuchel REALLY IS the best man for the England job
RAISING THE BAR
Tuchel wasn’t immediately gifted a role at one of his former clubs after his injury and instead had to fight his way back into the world of football.
The injury-riddled youngster decided he would enrol himself onto a Business Administration course.
While taking the course Tuchel supplemented his income WORKING IN A BAR, where he learned how to work on his self confidence and how to make a martini.
“I don’t want to have drunk the cocktails that I mixed at the beginning,” he laughed in his chat with ZEITmagazin MANN.
“I slowly developed a new self-confidence in the bar, shift by shift, evening after evening.
“I had overcome the inhibition threshold of asking strangers if they needed me.
“And suddenly I made the experience: ‘Your colleagues just like you for who you are, they have no idea that you were once a professional footballer’.”
NINE-YEAR TURNAROUND
It took Tuchel just nine years to go from serving cocktails in a bar to managing a Bundesliga side.
After earning his business degree and learning how to make a cocktail or two, Tuchel still had the itch to return to football.
He tried to get back into the game as a player but his chronic cartilage damage did him no favours when attempting to impress at a trial with Stuttgart’s reserves.
Then-Stuttgart boss Ralf Rangnick new that Tuchel’s football brain was moving much faster than his knackered knees and pushed him to try out coaching with the club’s youth setup.
Tuchel shadowed coaches at the German club’s academy and eventually took over as U14 head coach in 2000.
After five years of youth coaching at Stuttgart, Tuchel returned to former club Augsburg where he earned his badges and became reserve team manager.
With his ambition knowing no bounds, Tuchel moved onto Mainz in 2008 where he led their U19s to the Bundesliga U19 title.
The German national side were knocking on Tuchel’s door to give him the job as their U21 coach, but he turned to club management instead – securing the role as Mainz first team head coach just nine years after leaving his job as a barman.
NEW GIRLFRIEND
Tuchel’s life away from the technical area became big news during his time at Chelsea after reports that players in the Stamford Bridge dressing room were discussing his divorce from wife Sissi.
The pair brought an end to their 13-year marriage back in 2022 with Tuchel quick to move on.
Just days after his divorce from Sissi was granted, the then-Blues boss whisked away new girlfriend Natalie Max on a holiday to Sardinia.
Tuchel is still dating Natalie who is just over 13 years his junior.
The pair met while Tuchel was managing in London with Max, 37, a Brazilian businesswoman living in the English capital.