‘I could easily imagine Zinedine Zidane’ – Former Bayern star tips French legend to replace Thomas Tuchel and become Harry Kane’s next manager
The Bundesliga giants said last month that Tuchel would be leaving his job as head coach at the end of the season. This makes room for many other candidates to take over as manager. Zidane, on the other hand, hasn’t had a job since the end of his second term as Real Madrid manager in 2021. Mario Basler, a former star player for Bayern Munich, has said that the Frenchman, who won three straight Champions Leagues during his first time in Madrid, should take over for Tuchel.
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WHAT BASSLER SAID
“There aren’t too many alternatives on the coaching market,” the 55-year-old told the German news site Ran. So do I. I think Xabi Alonso will either stay at Leverkusen or go to another team, maybe Madrid or Liverpool. He could stay at Leverkusen for another year and then move to Real Madrid when Carlo Ancelotti leaves. Zinedine Zidane is the only person I could quickly think of.
However, Basler thinks that Bayern shouldn’t have let Tuchel go so quickly, comparing it to how they dealt with Julian Nagelsmann last year. He also said, “I don’t understand Bayern’s choice of players.” Bayern has made a quick choice again, just like they did with Julian Nagelsmann in the past. That also made no sense to me at all. If that happens [Bayern wins the Champions League], I’m interested to see if Bayern Munich would have the guts to concede that they made the wrong choice. We want to change the choice. They might talk to Tuchel again to see if they can’t keep going for another year or two.
Xabi Alonso for FC Leverkusen 03102024 by Getty Images
THE LARGER PICTURE
As Basler says, Bayern has a chance to win the Champions League, which Tuchel has already done with Chelsea once. They beat Lazio in the last 16 and are now in the running. However, Leverkusen is ten points behind in the Bundesliga because of Alonso’s bad behaviour. Because of this, the Spanish coach has been linked with a move away in the summer. One of those possible suitors is Bayern, who look like they will be able to compete with Liverpool this summer or Real Madrid the next.
WHAT DID YOU KNOW?
Not only Zidane and Alonso have been mentioned with the Bayern job, but also Jose Mourinho and Hansi Flick, who used to be the manager of Die Roten. Before Tuchel’s fate was made public, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the former manager of Manchester United, was talked about a lot earlier this season.
