England manager Thomas Tuchel has had a very successful career in football, but he was once forced into a normal life after an abrupt end to his playing career.
The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich boss was confirmed on Wednesday as the FA’s choice to replace Gareth Southgate permanently. The German coach’s decision to manage the Three Lions raised eyebrows, even though it’s not the first time he’s done something out of the ordinary.
When it comes to world-class football managers Tuchel, 51, is a strange breed, with controversy never far behind him. And he’s taken on several different outlandish roles during his life, from being a student to working behind a bar.
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Unlike most, his playing career was short-lived as he was forced to retire aged 24 after suffering a serious knee injury during a stint with German second division side SSV Ulm.
This led him into normal life and he attended a university in Stuttgart studying Business Administration whilst juggling a job at Radio Bar in the city. It allowed him to learn many life skills as well as how to fix drinks.
“I slowly developed a new self-confidence in the bar, shift by shift, evening after evening,” Tuchel explained in an interview.
“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’.”
He was pushed back into football by Ralf Rangnick who was then the boss at Stuttgart. Despite initially asking for a trial as a player, chronic cartilage damage saw Tuchel struggle and ultimately pursue coaching.
In just nine years he went from standing behind a bar to managing in the Bundesliga – with his first job coming in 2009 at Mainz.
Tuchel still took on the odd bizarre venture though. In 2017 he shocked football fans while posing for a fashion shoot in New York for Die Zeit’s men’s magazine.
He did prove himself to be one of football’s best-looking coaches though, with the series of trendy snaps surely helping him eventually land a job at PSG, with Paris being the home of fashion.
One thing’s for sure, England have bagged themselves a man of many talents who isn’t afraid to back down from a challenge.