Head coach Thomas Tuchel and Borussia Dortmund are getting divorced one year before the current contract expires in 2018, the eight-time German football champions announced on Tuesday. Swiss Lucien Favre will most likely take over from the 43-year-old. It is up to the 59-year-old Favre to guide the 2013 Champions League runners-up back to the top echelon of European football and to be a serious rival to Germany's number one, Bayern Munich, reports Xinhua news agency.
The relationship between the country's most talented squad and the coach, whose character is described as something between a genius and a man obsessed, was not one to last. For weeks now, their problem with one another was a major topic in the German media. Though tragic, the outcome seemed to be inevitable.
Despite having fulfilled the club's goals this season by winning the 2017 German Cup and securing an automatic Champions League place by finishing third in the league, Tuchel was isolated in the Dortmund club. The differences between significant parts of the squad and their coach grew in the last month. Tuchel did not hesitate to challenge the authority of the club management such as CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke and managing director Michael Zorc. Both in the end saw the necessity to strike back and secure the club's future and stability.
As a consequence, Dortmund have to accept Tuchel's financial demands, said to be at least two million euro ($2.23 million), and at the same time buy out Favre from his contract at the French side OGC Nice that runs to 2019. Tuchel did a good job when it came to re-building the team and returning it to the top of the domestic game. However, the tough struggle to achieve the current success has left a painful mark on team spirit and the close communal feeling, the club considers
so important.