- Former Chelsea manager signs deal until 2025
- Bayern face Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund next week
The former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has been confirmed as the new Bayern Munich head coach after the club sacked Julian Nagelsmann. Tuchel, 49, has agreed a contract until June 2025 and will take training for the first time on Monday.
News of Nagelsmann’s departure spread on Thursday evening and on Friday he returned from holiday to be told that he had lost his job despite leading Bayern to their 10th straight German league crown last season.
Bayern’s chief executive, Oliver Kahn, dispensed with Nagelsmann, 35, after the club slipped to second place in the Bundesliga table, behind Borussia Dortmund, going into the international break after Sundays 2-1 deafest to Bayer Leverkusen.
Kahn told the club’s website: “When we signed Julian Nagelsmann for FC Bayern in the summer of 2021, we were convinced we would work with him on a long-term basis – and that was the goal of all of us right up to the end. Julian shares our aspiration to play successful and attractive football. We came to the conclusion that the quality of our squad was less and less visible despite winning the league last season.
“After the World Cup we were playing less successful and less attractive football and the ups and downs in our form put our season goals, and beyond, at risk. That is why we have acted now.”
Nagelsmann took over in 2021 and led the Bavarian club to the Bundesliga title but failed to win any other silverware last season. Bayern crashed out in the German Cup second round after a demolition by Borussia Mönchengladbach and were then eliminated from the Champions League in a quarter-final defeat by the Spanish underdogs Villarreal.
His departure came as Bayern prepare to face Borussia Dortmund next week in the Bundesliga, on Saturday 1 April, and Manchester City in this season’s Champions League quarter-finals on 11 and 19 April.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THOMAS TUCHEL
Tuchel won the champions league with Chelsea in 2021 but was sacked last September after a 1-0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb. He built his reputation as a forward-thinking tactician in the Bundesliga during his time at Mainz before taking over at Dortmund and leading them to German Cup success in 2017.
He also delivered back-to-back French league titles at Paris Saint-Germain and took them to their first Champions League final in 2020, which they lost to Bayern.
