Barcelona’s last stop on their US tour will be in New York City. At the Red Bull Arena, at one in the morning from Saturday to Sunday, it will be measured against New York RB. The North American team is part of the extensive sports conglomerate of the energy drink, which has taken control of several soccer teams in different countries.
The group began its football expansion in Austria, in 2005, with the acquisition of SV Salzburg. Renamed Red Bull Salzburgthe team would go on to dominate the Austrian competition, with 13 leagues and 9 cups. His next acquisition was New York Red Bull itself, once MetroStar.in 2006. After them, the German Leipzig (2009) and the Brazilian Bragantino (2019).
One of the representative characteristics of the Red Bull group is the acquisition of young talents, applied in all disciplines. As for the football world, there are not a few cases in recent years: Mané, Haaland, Werner, Kimmich, Szboszlai, Nkunku, Adeyemi… A very prolific transfer policy, with which even Salzburg won the UEFA Youth League in 2017 at the hands of Gerhard Struber, current coach of New York RB. Thanks to the sale of these players, the group continues to develop its business plan in different countries, as well as increasing the power and competitiveness of the existing teams.
Their clubs also they have very own game characteristicsfrom which great figures have come out of the benches. Julian Nagelsmanncurrent coach of Bayern Munich, Marco Roseformer coach of Dortmund, or Thomas Tuchelwinner of the Champions with Chelsea, are some of the most recent examples.
Thierry Henry, differential factor in the MLS
At the time of the acquisition of the North American team, the French Youri Djorkaeff was the top star of RB New York. Since then, old acquaintances of Spanish and European football have passed through the ranks of the New York team: Rafa Márquez, Tim Cahill, Shaun Wright-Phillips… But if one stands out above all of them, it is Thierry Henry.
The French star arrived in New York after leaving the ranks of Barcelona in 2010, and from the moment of his arrival became the maximum reference of the MLS. In the almost five years that he spent there before his retirement (loan at Arsenal in between included), Henry scored 52 goals and gave 49 assists in 135 games, also achieving the first win in club history in the 2012-13 campaign.
Currently, the New York team is in third position in the MLS, with a group of young national and international promises. Lewis Morgan, ex-Celtic Glasgow, is the star of the team. Twelve goals and two assists have been achieved this season by the Scotsman, who will try to put the Blaugrana defense in trouble in Barcelona’s last match on American soil.