Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel says he’s still leaving after talks on extending fell through

Bayern said in February that Tuchel would leave at the end of the season but the coach said Friday that he held talks with the club on a “180-degree turn” that would have seen him stay after all.

Bayern’s head coach Thomas Tuchel follows the game during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Sunday, May 12, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP

Thomas Tuchel says he is still leaving Bayern Munich after talks on extending his stay at the club fell through.

Bayern said in February that Tuchel would leave at the end of the season but the coach said Friday that he held talks with the club on a “180-degree turn” that would have seen him stay after all.

“We found no agreement on further cooperation, so the agreement from February remains in force,” he said.

In the three months since Bayern said Tuchel was leaving, it has tried and failed to sign a series of high-profile replacements.

Xabi Alonso is staying with Bayer Leverkusen after beating Bayern to the Bundesliga title, Tuchel’s predecessor Julian Nagelsmann signed an extension with the German national team, and Ralf Rangnick remains with Austria.

Bayern is without a trophy this season for the first time since 2012 after losing the Bundesliga title to Bayer Leverkusen, but Tuchel’s team was praised for reaching the Champions League semifinals before a narrow loss to Real Madrid.

There was also a petition from some Bayern fans calling on the club to keep Tuchel.

Strong European performances prompted the club to reach out to him in an attempt to persuade him to stay, the coach said.

“Above all, the feedback after Real Madrid over this last week was the basis to think again about the 180-degree turn, but we didn’t reach any agreement,“ he said. “I don’t want to go into the individual points and the motivations behind them. That is behind closed doors and stays that way.”

There was tension last month after Tuchel said he had been insulted by comments from the club’s honorary president Uli Hoeness claiming the coach “doesn’t think he can improve” the team’s young stars.

Tuchel said at the time that Hoeness’ comments were “so far removed from reality” and added: “On the one hand it insults my honour as a coach because I think we’ve shown as a coaching team for the last 15 years that young players, especially from the academy, always, always, always have a place with us in training and that they have a place on the field with their performances.”