England manager Thomas Tuchel hesitated when asked about his favourite footballer ever, but eventually named former West Germany defender Hans-Gunter Bruns as his ‘first idol’ on the pitch. The former Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain boss revealed he ‘was a huge fan’ of Borussia Monchengladbach in his childhood and hailed Bruns as his standout player from the German club. Despite starting out as a midfielder for Schalke, Bruns evolved into one of the finest sweepers of his generation during his time at Gladbach and was part of the side that won the 1979 UEFA Cup.
He made well over 300 appearances for the North Rhine-Westphalia-based club and won four caps for West Germany, as well as earning a call-up to the squad for the 1984 European Championship. Thomas Tuchel has won nine major trophies in his career at clubs including Chelsea and Bayern Munich as he prepares for life as England manager. Tuchel Idolised Hans-Gunter Bruns Speaking to Sky Sports in 2021, Tuchel praised Bruns when asked about his favourite footballer ever and revealed he was also a huge fan of Ajax and Barcelona players: “This is unfair because there are a lot of them.
I was a huge fan of Borussia Monchengladbach when I was a kid, a little boy. There was this guy in defence called Hans-Gunter Bruns, and he was like the sweeper. There was no line of back four these days.
“There was one guy who was at the back, a bit of chilling, letting the others do the hard work, man-on-man, the challenges, and c.
