“On a par with Klopp”
DFB star says goodbye with an ode to Tuchel
05/21/2022, 12:35 p.m
Antonio Rüdiger celebrates great success with Chelsea FC. Mainly responsible for this: coach Thomas Tuchel. The national player is now leaving the club – and reminds once again of the services of Tuchel.
Shortly before leaving the English Premier League club FC Chelsea, the German national soccer player Antonio Rüdiger praised his coach Thomas Tuchel in the highest tones. “For me, he’s a phenomenal coach. He’s on the same level as Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp,” Rüdiger told The Times newspaper. Chelsea can be very proud of their manager, especially how he managed things in difficult times.
The British government had imposed strict sanctions on Chelsea because of the closeness of current owner Roman Abramovich to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The club is now to be sold to American Todd Boehly, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
He hopes, said Rüdiger, that the mentality in the club will change, that a coach will be fired if there is no success. A process can be seen under Tuchel. Chelsea are third in the final day of the English league, having lost to Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Rüdiger switched from AS Roma to Chelsea in the summer of 2017. With the Blues he won the FA Cup, Europa League, Champions League and Club World Cup. In almost five years at Stamford Bridge, he had five different managers. After he no longer played regularly under Frank Lampard and was about to say goodbye, the defender under Tuchel became one of the top performers in the team. The professional career of the native Berliner started at VfB Stuttgart.
Rüdiger is expected to switch to Spanish champions Real Madrid for the new season. According to The Athletic magazine, the 29-year-old defender has already signed a four-year contract with the Spanish champions.