A little hidden builds RB Leipzig on the future. Behind the training center, within sight of the former central stadium, sandwiched between the fair and the tram station, this future is being built from a lot of spruce from the Bavarian Forest and recycled concrete. The new office is currently creating 300 modern, equipped workplaces. The “communicative building structure” is intended to promote “the open corporate and club culture,” according to the club’s website, and the concept is intended to strengthen agile design and cross-departmental work. All of this, of course, for maximum success.
If you look at the shell of this building and imagine what it should look like, then it’s not that easy to get around this world Jurgen Klopp to introduce. He, the heavy metal trainer, baring teeth, volcano, suddenly has a business card that will say “Jürgen Klopp, Head of Global Soccer.”
Jürgen Klopp and Red Bull, that was a contradiction for many until Wednesday. Now he should give corporate football a soul and should now tackle the global tasks of the company instead of the referees.
But what exactly will Klopp’s job be? What does Red Bull boss Oliver Mintzlaff hope for from this change? And will Red Bull now continue its club shopping spree? There are currently no definitive answers to many questions, but approximations are possible.
There is a clip from 2022, recorded by the DFL, that is currently going around on social media. Jürgen Klopp sits in a sports hall in Liverpool FC training clothes and thinks about RB Leipzig. “I know how much Rasenball and Red Bull are criticized by traditionalists in football. And I am one too,” he says. “I just think that Leipzig hasn’t taken anything away from a traditional club, but has taken a new path.” Thanks to the start-up financing, RB managed to qualify for the Bundesliga in its first year Champions League and thus access to the large pots of money. In any case, Klopp thinks: “Leipzig’s salary budget is no higher than that of Dortmund, Bayern or anything else. The whole principle is to develop young players. The whole idea is a football idea. And not a money idea.”
And Klopp’s idea, after Salzburg to change, was that a money idea or a football idea?
That much can be said with certainty, it was orchestrated by Oliver Mintzlaff. He is the managing director at Red Bull and made RB Leipzig great. He is still chairman of the supervisory board in the branch and has extremely large influence.
Mintzlaff and Klopp have known each other for a while. Klopp is advised by Marc Kosicke, who is already there Julian NagelsmannMax Eberl and Ralf Rangnick. In addition, three Leipzig players, Naby Keïta, Ibrahima Konaté and Dominik Szoboszlai, have moved to Liverpool in recent years. So the wire was short.
Apparently Mintzlaff has been working on signing Klopp since the summer. They reported back then Salzburg News already about it, but the rumor was denied. Klopp had already thought about a move to Red Bull Salzburg in 2008. The contact never seems to be completely broken. Apparently it was the wish of the late Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz to bring Klopp into the group at some point. Loud tz Mateschitz is said to have personally convinced Klopp of his group as early as 2022.
Now Klopp is said to have signed a five-year contract. Without an exit clause, they say. But should his country call for him, there would certainly be a way from Salzburg to the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt. The only question is whether Klopp even wants to go back to the sidelines.
Maybe that has something to do with how much he likes the new job. Klopp is docked at the Red Bull headquarters in Salzburg. He will not have his own office at one of the different locations, but will probably jet back and forth between the clubs. Mario Gómez also has a “technical director” reporting to him.
It is said that Klopp should work against satisfaction. RB Leipzig plays regularly in the Champions League, but so far it hasn’t been enough for the title there or the German championship. A circumstance that Mintzlaff himself recently mentioned in an interview with Kicker formulated critically.
In addition, synergies should probably be created between the different clubs. The path of many talents so far has been: FC Liefering, Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig. If you no longer have the highest level at the end, you will go back a step, like Emil Forsberg recently did with the New York Red Bulls. In addition to these clubs, there is also a club in Brazil, in the third Japanese league, and Red Bull has also bought into the English second division club Leeds United. So there are some opportunities for synergies. But what does that mean exactly?
A little hidden builds RB Leipzig on the future. Behind the training center, within sight of the former central stadium, sandwiched between the fair and the tram station, this future is being built from a lot of spruce from the Bavarian Forest and recycled concrete. The new office is currently creating 300 modern, equipped workplaces. The “communicative building structure” is intended to promote “the open corporate and club culture,” according to the club’s website, and the concept is intended to strengthen agile design and cross-departmental work. All of this, of course, for maximum success.
