LISBON (Reuters) – There is little in fashionable football that can be described as a fairytale romance, but RB Leipzig’s career from the German regional league formula to the last 4 of the Champions League in just 11 years is actually approaching.
The 2–1 win over Atletico Madrid at the Estadio José Alvalade on Thursday propelled Leipzig, from former East Germany, to the semi-finals that will face Paris St Germain.
Even the most ambitious of those who took part in the creation of the club in 2009 may not have imagined that their team is 90 minutes from the largest interclub football match in the ECU.
The fact that the immediate increase financed through the Austrian electric beverage company Red Bull, after its billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz discovered a way to circumvent Bundesliga restrictions on corporations that have a majority stake in clubs, has left Leipzig without the love of many in German football.
But his good fortune is more than the finances of Mateschitz, who took over the amateur club SSV Markranstaedt in 2009 and turned him into RasenBallsport Leipzig, literally Ball Lawn Leipzig. The call allowed them to use the initials of the company RB.
The purpose of the 88th-minute victory came from American replacement Tyler Adams, a player who debuted at New York’s Red Bull Academy at the age of 12 before the ladder. He played for the New York Red Bulls in the MLS before joining Leipzig last year.
Red Bull also owns the Austrian club RB Salzburg and is supplied in Brazil. In all his clubs, he is in studies and skills development.
While critics would possibly scoff at the idea that Leipzig is an outsider who attacks the strength of the sport, it should be noted that his greatest attraction on the field against Atletico was midfielder Kevin Kampl, who charges 20 million euros ($23.63 million).
That’s a fraction of the 126 million euros that his Spanish war games paid Benfica for Portuguese striker Joao Félix last year, the 20-year-old on the bench before getting a draw in the 71st minute on Thursday.
In fact, Red Bull’s strategy is necessarily to look for talent, expand and sell them, making it a horny club for young players.
Nathrough Keita, now with Liverpool, is the best example: he found out in the French department at the time through RB Salzburg, joined the dual club Leipzig for around 20 million euros before being sold to the English champions for 50 million pounds ($65.34). millions) two years later.
Central zaguero Dayot Upamecano, a notable rival of Atletico, also learned in French football through RB Salzburg, temporarily moved to the German club and is now on the radar of many of the continent’s most sensitive groups.
Thursday’s victory is the result of another very good tactical demonstration through Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann, 33.
The youngest coach to succeed in the Champions League quarter-finals, Nagelsmann is already highly watched by the continent’s top clubs who suspect he may be the next Juergen Klopp.
All of this makes Leipzig’s good fortune a solid strategy and quality recruitment and progression; however, there is also something broader of “welfare” in its good fortune.
The two classic Leipzig clubs, like many of the ex-communist’s teams, had struggled to adapt to the post-communist of a united Germany, leaving a generation of fans throughout the region with little encouragement.
Now, at least in Saxony, they still have a team they can be proud of.
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Reporting through Simon Evans, edited through Pritha Sarkar
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