How Tuchel almost joined Bayern before becoming Chelsea manager

Stefan Bienkowski

• 19 Nov 2021 12:05 GMT
• 3 min read

Thomas Tuchel is now undoubtedly one of European football’s most prominent managers after taking Chelsea to Champions League just a few months after being appointed to the job in January of this year.

Indeed, the German manager has ticked just about every box since losing his job at Paris Saint-Germain last year and now looks set to challenge for the Premier League title and do his utmost to ensure his side retain their European Cup.

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However, long before Tuchel arrived on the shores of England to dominate the Premier League, he was once courted by none other than Bayern Munich and came dangerously close to joining the Bundesliga giants.

When did Tuchel almost join Bayern?

According to a new report from BILD reporter Christian Falk, Bayern had shortlisted Tuchel as a potential successor for Jupp Heynckes, when the senior head coach eventually decided to retire.

Bayern were forced to act in early 2018, when Heynckes told the club that he intended on retiring ahead of the next season. By that point Tuchel was out of work, having left Borussia Dortmund a year earlier, due to internal disagreements with the head coach and the club’s recruitment department.

However, instead of going full-steam ahead with their plans to appoint Tuchel, Bayern’s then president Uli Hoeneß instead spent much of the first few months of the year trying to convince Heynckes to stay on at the Munich side.

As such, according to Falk, Paris Saint-Germain swooped in for Tuchel and after no real progress with Bayern, the future Chelsea manager decided to make the move to Paris instead in May 2018.

What if Tuchel had joined Bayern?

While Bayern seem back on track now after Hansi Flick stabilised the ship and Julian Nagelsmann now seems confident of keeping things ticking along, the club were under some serious stress following the appointment of Niko Kovac as Heynckes’ successor.

Despite winning the Bundesliga title and German Cup in his first season, the Croatian head coach eventually left in November 2019 after a poor start to his second campaign at the club and led to a notable period of instability for Bayern.

And while the club may now be back on track, appointing Tuchel instead of Kovac may have saved the club a lot of bother before Flick eventually arrived in March 2019.