Watzke's Reflection on Tuchel and Germany's Coaching Continuity
Hans-Joachim Watzke wanted Thomas Tuchel to take over the German national team in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 World Cup disaster in Qatar – and says he later gave a glowing reference before Tuchel took the England job.
The long-serving Borussia Dortmund chief, who has been DFB vice president since 2022, revealed on Sky Germany that Germany’s group-stage exit set his mind racing.
“We were eliminated in Qatar quite miserably. And then? Then you think at night or for two nights, what could be now?”
Watzke said, describing the period of soul-searching that followed.
Inside the DFB, continuity won the argument. Hansi Flick stayed. Watzke stressed that the decision was not his to make.
“Oliver Bierhoff was still there at the time. It was not my decision who would be national coach. But the basic attitude was simple: We’ll continue with Hansi Flick,”
he explained.
Watzke made clear this was no slight on Flick’s quality, pointing to the German’s current work in Spain.
“And Hansi is an excellent coach; you can see what he’s doing at Barcelona.”
But the damage from Qatar, in his view, ran deeper than the bare results. He believed the performances themselves underlined how difficult the road ahead would be for the national team.
In that context, Tuchel’s name loomed large in Watzke’s thoughts. The pair share a complicated but enduring relationship from their time together at Borussia Dortmund between 2015 and 2017, a spell that ended abruptly despite success on the pitch.
Tuchel was dismissed just days after lifting the DFB Pokal, the culmination of months of tension with the club hierarchy. Central to that breakdown was the furious debate over being forced to play a Champions League quarter-final at home only a day after a bomb attack on the team bus.
From the outside, that saga looked like a clean break. Watzke insists the reality was far more nuanced.
He said that what became public “wasn’t the full truth” and stressed that, despite the fall-out, he and Tuchel have maintained a good relationship. The respect, he suggested, never really disappeared.
That respect resurfaced when the English FA came calling. Before Tuchel was appointed England manager, Watzke was consulted and did not hesitate to recommend his former coach.
“Anyone who knows Tuchel as a personality also knows that he also imposes this pressure on himself,”
Watzke said, portraying a coach who lives on the edge by choice as much as by circumstance.
He circled back to that night of the bus attack and the aftermath, and to the human side of Tuchel’s reaction.
“As I said, I always had respect for it in the end, even in retrospect, because I don’t know if, when you were sitting on the bus at that moment, things felt different for you. After all, you just have to respect that.”
Germany chose continuity. England chose Tuchel. And somewhere between Qatar and Wembley, Watzke’s late-night reflections helped shape one of the most intriguing international coaching appointments of this era.
