2024-10-09 15:07:00
Jürgen Klopp’s commitment as Red Bull’s “Head of Global Soccer” “didn’t particularly surprise” Ralf Rangnick. “The rumor has been circulating for weeks, including in the Leipzig area,” reported the ÖFB team boss on Wednesday in the press conference before the international match against Kazakhstan on Thursday in Linz. A possible task for Klopp could be to ensure more homegrown players in the Bulls’ squad.
“I myself held (…) the same position – at least it was mentioned straight away. That’s why I know that it is a very exciting, complex, demanding and time-consuming task,” recalled Rangnick in 2019 and 2020. At that time he was for Leipzig and the Red Bull branches in New York and Brazil also “assisted” in squad planning and ensured “that there is an exchange between the clubs,” said Rangnick. He doesn’t know how Klopp interprets the role.
Rangnick worked for the Red Bull Group for more than eight years. From 2012 to 2015, the Swabian served as sports director for Salzburg and Leipzig, and after three years he moved the focus of his work entirely to Saxony. In Leipzig he was a coach and also sports director before he toured the world in 2019 and 2020 as Red Bull’s global football director – also responsible for the clubs in New York and Braganca Paulista in Brazil.
“It will certainly be exciting to see to what extent Jürgen Klopp can contribute,” explained Rangnick. Former Red Bull player Konrad Laimer, who now works at Bayern Munich after stints in Salzburg and Leipzig, is apparently also looking forward to Klopp’s return to football with interest. “He can achieve a lot,” said the ÖFB team player. “I never had him as a coach, but he was very exceptional at every station he was at.”
Rangnick’s start in Salzburg in the summer of 2012 was also extraordinary. The exit in the Champions League qualifying against the Luxembourg “dwarf” Dudelange probably left its mark even on him. “Mr. Rangnick, we would have managed to be eliminated against Dudelange with all Austrians in the management team, we wouldn’t have needed you two Germans for that,” the then Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz said to him afterwards. “It was no laughing matter back then,” emphasized Rangnick, who had installed his German compatriot Roger Schmidt as coach.
The ÖFB team boss drew a parallel to the current misery of Salzburg, who have been embarrassed by Sparta Prague (0:3), Stade Brest (0:4) and Sturm Graz (0:5) in the last three weeks. “I think if he were still alive and had seen the games against Sparta Prague, Brest and Sturm, he (Mateschitz, note) would have said to those in charge now: We would have 0:12 goals from the three games even with three or four young Austrians in the starting eleven,” said Rangnick.
In this respect, he also wanted his statements to Salzburg’s farm team FC Liefering from the previous week to be understood differently. “No player is in the first team squad. Is all the commitment you put in worth it?” asked Rangnick. Nine days later, he emphasized that it was “not a criticism of Liefering.” It’s more about a different question: “Namely, whether it wouldn’t be possible to play more successful football again with a few Austrians in the starting eleven. That’s a task that Jürgen or Mario Gomez (technical director at Red Bull Soccer, note) or whoever will accept.”
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