Hans-Joachim Watzke's Support for Thomas Tuchel's Coaching Journey

Hans-Joachim Watzke wanted Thomas Tuchel to take over the German national team in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 World Cup debacle in Qatar – and says he later endorsed him for the England job.

The long-serving Borussia Dortmund chief, who has been DFB vice president since 2022, revealed in an interview with Sky Germany that his mind went straight to Tuchel as Germany crashed out in the group stage.

“We were eliminated in Qatar quite miserably. And then? Then you think at night or for two nights, what could be now?” Watzke said.

The answer, in his head, was clear: Tuchel.

Flick stays, Tuchel waits

Inside the DFB, though, the mood was different. Oliver Bierhoff was still in charge of the national team setup, and continuity won the internal argument.

“Oliver Bierhoff was still there at the time. It was not my decision who would be national coach,” Watzke explained. “But the basic attitude was simple: We'll continue with Hansi Flick. And Hansi is an excellent coach; you can see what he's doing at Barcelona.”

Watzke’s reservations were not only about results. He believed the team’s whole appearance at the tournament – the structure, the conviction, the performances – pointed to deeper problems that would be hard to correct on the fly.

Germany chose stability. Tuchel’s chance with the national team never came.

Old wounds, lasting respect

Watzke and Tuchel know each other as well as any executive–coach pairing in German football. They worked together at Borussia Dortmund from 2015 to 2017, a period that brought the DFB Pokal but ended in a messy split.

Tuchel was dismissed shortly after lifting the cup, the relationship badly damaged by the fallout from the bomb attack on Dortmund’s team bus in April 2017 and the subsequent decision to play a Champions League quarter-final home leg just a day later. The coach publicly criticised the handling of the situation; the club hierarchy bristled.

Years on, Watzke insists the public version of that story is incomplete.

He says what reached the outside world “wasn't the full truth” and stresses that, despite the rupture, the two men have rebuilt a strong working relationship. The respect, he suggests, never really disappeared.

“Anyone who knows Tuchel as a personality also knows that he also imposes this pressure on himself,” Watzke said. He pointed back to that night on the bus and the trauma that followed.

“And 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.”

From Germany’s missed chance to England’s call

That respect mattered when Tuchel’s next big international opportunity emerged.

Before the former Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Bayern Munich coach was appointed England manager, Watzke was consulted about his former colleague. His answer was positive. No hesitation, no old grudges.

He gave Tuchel a strong recommendation, backing a coach he once considered for Germany’s top job to take over one of the most scrutinised national teams in world football.

Germany moved on with Flick, then Julian Nagelsmann. Tuchel moved on to England. And Watzke, looking back at Qatar and that sleepless couple of nights, is left with a simple truth: the man he wanted for Germany now leads a rival.