10 years ago: RB Leipzig’s promotion to the 3rd division – Zorniger & Kaiser exclusively

“My contract had a Champions League clause. I think that was the case with all players who were newly signed, to make the objective clear,” says ex-Leipzig coach Alexander Zorniger about his beginnings at RB in July 2012 in the Regionalliga Nordost. The Saxons had previously missed promotion to the 3rd division twice under Peter Pacult and Tomas Oral and this should not happen again. Exactly ten years ago today, the then four-year-old club made the leap into professional football for the first time.

The “Red Bulls” secured first place with a 14-point lead and did not lose any of their 30 games. A promotion round followed, in which the champions from the north-east (Leipzig), north (Kiel), Bavaria (1860 II), west (Lotte) and the first and second from the south-west (Elversberg, Kassel) took part. For RB it was against Lotte, who also dominated their own season. After the first leg in Leipzig (2-0), the people of Messestadt looked like they were sure to move up, but in the second duel it got nerve-racking: Sportfreunde scored 1-0 in the 28th minute and it was striker Dennis Schmidt who did it in the fourth minute of stoppage time equalized the result from the first leg – it went into extra time.

Here is the match report

“It was certainly a real blow to the neck,” recalls midfielder Dominik Kaiser. It is “quite normal that heads go down for a moment if you concede a goal in a game like this”. Zorniger can still see captain Daniel Frahn, who was on the bench in both games due to a ligament injury, taking a few steps into the field and supporting his team-mates. When asked what advice he gave his players before extra time, the coach says: “We did more than any other team, also because of the opportunities. We were fitter than any other team. And now we score.”

Trainer performance data from Alexander Zorniger

Kaiser mentions that the coaching staff was “focused” and “positive” at the moment. “That’s why we grabbed it,” emphasizes the 34-year-old. Because both teams had already exhausted their three substitution options, they went into extra time unchanged. In this, RB needed less than five minutes to make it 1-2 and have one leg back in the 3rd division. The opposing captain Tobias Willers (moved to RB for the 2013/14 season) scored an own goal with his head after a cross from Joker Matthias Morys. The decision about promotion came in the 110th minute when the Leipzig team were awarded a penalty after goalkeeper David Buchholz fouled Bastian Schulz, which Stefan Kutschke converted – he had already scored from the point in the first leg. “Everything fell off…” says Zorniger about the moment of the final whistle. He could see the feeling of relief: eyes closed, hands clenched into fists and arms stretched overhead.

Kaiser describes the promotion to the 3rd division as “probably the most important” in the club’s history. Before moving to RB, the Swabian played for TSG Hoffenheim and made ten appearances in the Bundesliga. It cost EUR 600,000, but it did not become Leipzig’s most expensive purchase, because in 2010 (one year after it was founded), the club spent more money on Carsten Kammlott from Erfurt – EUR 800,000. “In terms of feeling, it was certainly a big step backwards, from the first to the fourth division. But I took the chance and in hindsight it was the right way,” says Kaiser.

Performance data from Dominik Kaiser

About the promotion squad for the 2012/13 season, he says: “In terms of individual quality, we were definitely an above-average regional league team. But the players have also developed and constantly improved in order to take on new challenges such as the third or second division and deliver top performances there again.” The goal of promotion has made the players “extremely united and strong”, Kaiser is certain. Zorniger names the mentality as the key to success: “You don’t have to talk about the fact that we had a high quality. But in Lotte, in extra time, it wasn’t about quality, it was just about mentality. Every training session, every team-building measure, every conversation between the players and every conversation between staff and players helped you to prevail against all the resistance.” He also says: “The team had such a passion because of the passion Power, that was great.”

With talent and high expenses: RB Leipzig’s way to the Bundesliga

Sports director Ralf Rangnick made changes to the team after promotion. 13 of the 33 players left the club by winter at the latest, including Rekordeinkauf Kammlott and Kutschke. The team was reinforced with talents such as Yussuf Poulsen and Joshua Kimmich (then 19 and 18 years old respectively) for expenses of 3 million euros, which was the top value in the 3rd division and even in the second division for second place (behind Cologne) would have been enough. Leipzig’s squad value rose from 6.75 million to 10.4 million euros and was only surpassed by the reserve teams from Stuttgart and Dortmund. The newcomers were on average 20.9 years old and thus younger than ever before. RB, or more precisely Rangnick, had made it its mission to sign players between the ages of 17 and 23 – according to this philosophy, action should be taken for several years and only seldom refrained from doing so.

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Because RB managed to march through to the 2nd Bundesliga, the squad was changed again for the 2014/15 season and other players who were already active in the regional league for the club were handed over – including Thiago Rockenbach and Timo Röttger. In addition, Clemens Fandrich and Morys also left the club in winter, initially on loan and then finally in the following summer. Leipzig invested more than 23 million euros in new players for the Bundesliga goal and had by far the highest expenditures in the lower house – for comparison: Nuremberg took second place with 3.9 million euros. At the same time, only five Bundesliga clubs handed more money than RB, which started in the second division with players like Terrence Boyd, Emil Forsberg and Ante Rebic (both from winter).

Although the squad value was now 33 million euros and thus at the top of the second division ranking, it was only enough for fifth place at the end of the season. Zorniger was no longer in office, because he had to leave in February 2015 after a total of 953 days (Leipzig’s top value to date). He was followed by Achim Beierlorzer. The performance was reason enough for RB to increase spending to EUR 26 million in the 2015/16 season and to present Davie Selke, Marcel Halstenberg, Péter Gulácsi, Stefan Ilsanker and Willi Orbán as additions. For the long-time regulars Frahn, Niklas Hoheneder, Tim Sebastian, Fabian Franke and Sebastian Heidinger, who accompanied RB from the fourth to the second division, it was over. The Leipzig team has now been valued at 41 million euros. The second division championship went to SC Freiburg, Leipzig, meanwhile, secured second place in the promotion with Rangnick on the sidelines and reached the top division in Germany seven years after it was founded.

Rose and his predecessors: RB Leipzig’s coach after a point cut → Click here for the gallery!

The Bundesliga squad included three professionals who were already active for RB in the regional league: goalkeepers Fabio Coltorti and Benjamin Bellot as well as Kaiser. However, Coltorti and Bellot were only backups. The former was in April 2017 against Darmstadt (4-0) the only time in the upper house between the posts before retiring the following year. Bellot was used exclusively in reserve in Leipzig’s first Bundesliga season and then left the club after eight years – he was already part of the team in 2009, the year it was founded.

Dominik Kaiser among RB Leipzig’s record players: “Role model for every professional”

The absolute constant was Kaiser, who experienced the premieres on the international stage in the Champions League and Europa League in his last Leipzig season 2017/18. “Domme had a high level of talent and understood the game but he wasn’t a phenomenal regional league player to begin with and it was the same in the third, second and first leagues. But how he got used to every league makes him a role model for every professional,” says Zorniger about his long-time protégé, with whom he also worked at amateur club 1. FC Normannia Gmünd and Danish first division club Brondby IF. “Everyone could identify with him. He’s a great person and was a great footballer,” says the current coach of the second division team SpVgg Greuther Fürth and adds: “If my son is to become like Domme in the human area at some point, then I’ve done everything right in his upbringing.”

353 appearances for first place: The record players from RB Leipzig → Click here for the gallery!

Kaiser’s time in Leipzig started in 2012 in the Regionalliga Nordost with a 1-1 draw against Union Berlin II and ended six years later with a 4-1 win against VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga – it was game number 167 for the Mutlanger-born, who was a record player – Ranking 13th place. During this period, Leipzig’s squad value rose to 373 million euros – now 487 million euros are on the books. With the exception of the Red Bull Arena as the home ground, there is almost nothing left of the regional league years at RB.

According to Kaiser and Zorniger, what remains is the team spirit from the 2012/13 season. “The rise has brought us even closer together, it’s a special connection. The relegation and especially the game in Lotte shaped us. I always have fond memories of the boys and I still really, really enjoy meeting them. It was a special time and we’re a cool bunch,” says Kaiser. Zorniger supports him: “That welded us together for our entire lives. We have a WhatsApp group, I write into it when I’m in Leipzig and then I always meet a few.”