Football
Stephan Uersfeld, Germany correspondent 7y

Schalke came close to hiring former Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel

Schalke considered hiring Thomas Tuchel as their new head coach earlier this summer, the club's CEO Christian Heidel has told Spiegel Online.

Tuchel left Borussia Dortmund following the 2016-17 season after his relationship with the club's hierarchy and some members of the squad collapsed.

Fierce rivals Schalke parted company with head coach Markus Weinzierl after just one season around the same time and Heidel, who handed Tuchel his first job in professional football at Mainz in 2009, said that he considered him for the position as Royal Blues boss.

"I would lie if I were to say I did not think about it," Heidel said. "We were in contact again, but Schalke is not possible so soon after [leaving] Dortmund.

"We were still looking for a coach when the row was still ongoing at Dortmund. If Thomas had joined Schalke at that time, the situation probably would have escalated. I doubt that we'd been able to work in peace here, and every day new stories on that topic would have been published."

Instead of Tuchel, Schalke named 31-year-old Domenico Tedesco as their new head coach, while Peter Bosz joined Dortmund from Ajax.

Under Bosz, Dortmund have managed to win both matches on their recent tour of Asia, which they rounded off with a 3-1 victory against AC Milan in the International Champions Cup on Tuesday. Nuri Sahin opened the scoring and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck a brace against his former club.

Speaking to reporters, Bosz said he was delighted to have beaten the Serie A club.

"We've seen that with our pressing game we can also be very dangerous for teams like Milan," he added.

Looking back on the entire trip, Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said: "I am very pleased with the way each and every one of us presented himself on this tour."

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