Leaves Chelsea in summer
Antonio Rüdiger would have preferred to switch to the German coach before Thomas Tuchel arrived at Chelsea, when he was still under contract with Paris Saint-Germain. The central defender, who is leaving London again this year, primarily manifested his desire to change because of the difficult situation under Frank Lampard in the 2020/21 season.
“I wasn’t in the squad anymore. They said I should go, but I was never told that directly,” said the 29-year-old in a “DAZN” interview about Lampard’s time at Stamford Bridge. He emphasized: “I was ready to go and wanted to go to Tuchel and PSG at the time. “But that didn’t work out, everyone noticed what happened between Paris and Tuchel.”
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Towards the end of Lampard’s one-and-a-half-year tenure, who is currently fighting against relegation from the Premier League with Everton, the situation had changed – when there was a “crisis”, said Rüdiger, the coach relied on him again. At the beginning of 2021, Tuchel took over Lampard’s job. Rüdiger stayed and became a fixture. Under the new coach, Chelsea won the Champions League straight away in 2021. Back then, he didn’t really believe in this triumph himself, as Rüdiger stated: “I couldn’t have imagined that, I’ll be honest. The last thing we dreamed of was that final.”
After five years at Stamford Bridge, the native of Berlin is now drawn to Real Madrid. According to a report by The Athletic, the defender has signed a four-year contract with the Spanish champions. His contract with Chelsea expires at the end of the season and he can leave the Blues for free. Tuchel had already confirmed that Rüdiger was leaving.
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