RB Leipzig: The team who defy everything that German football stands for, but in the right way

RB Leipzig fans

BY FRANKIE CHRISTOU - @FrankieChristou 

Usually, if a team ploughs its way through the hierarchy of the English football league a sense of respect, admiration and decorum follow. Their triumph is recognised as one that defeated the rigid status-quo which has plagued sport, and in particular, football for centuries. 

It happened when Leicester City, only a year after their return to the top flight, miraculously won the Premier League in 2016 with a squad full of wasted talents and a couple of gems they recruited from the lower divisions in France. 

It happened when Sergio Aguero scored that all-important last-second goal against QPR in 2012 to secure Manchester City’s first Premier League title by goal difference after only four years of investment from their billionaire owners.

It also happens in European competitions – 2004 notably springs to mind when a young Portuguese coach going by the name of Jose Mourinho fought of football’s galactico's to win the Champions League with Porto. 

However, in Germany, such feat is not welcomed with opened arms. 

Football teams are not judged by their accolades or their financial strength, but rather their traditions, their history and more importantly a working-class philosophy of a footballing identity. 

It is not so surprising if you remember what German culture has been through in the last 100 years.

The country has been flattened, rallied up, flattened again, then carved up into four disproportionate sections and then clumsily stitched back together. The Volk have always been patriotic as a result of their explicit history and its football is not immune to such credence. 

Football clubs in Germany are more than just teams. They are an ethos etched into a collective identity of individuals from a region who connect with the club’s historic voyage – as most German clubs are branded by their birth year. 

This somewhat explains why RB Leipzig's current success in the Bundesliga is frowned upon with disgust in Germany, despite their challenge being healthy for the country's footballing pedigree. 

1. FC Union Berlin fans holding a protest against RB Leipzig 

The attitude towards them was best exemplified when they met their East German rivals, 1. FC Union Berlin, on the opening day of the season. 

Instead of filling the stadium with euphoria on the clubs inaugural Bundesliga fixture they chose to hold a silent protest against Leipzig's conglomerate funding. 

Union Berlin are a club who have endured their struggles in correspondence with Germany’s history as they too have their own story of being been carved up, flattened and then sewed back together. 

More recently, The Iron Ones portrayed their spirit in 2008 when they saved the club from going into administration with their ‘Bleed for Berlin’ campaign which witnessed people donate their blood to raise funds. 

RB Leipzig cannot relate to such passion due to the club being an adolescent in comparison to Germany’s most prestigious clubs. 

Having only established themselves in 2009 after Red Bull purchased the playing rights to a fifth-tier side, SSV Markranstadt, and trademarked them, RB Leipzig, The Bulls find themselves sitting at the top of the Bundesliga while averaging a home attendance of 38,000. 

You would think that due to their conglomerate branding that Leipzig have bought their way to the top of the league, in a similar fashion to Manchester City who have evolved into one of Europe’s elite clubs due to their deep pockets. 

But that isn’t their style. Leipzig and their little brother, Salzburg, are viewed as businesses by Red Bull and thus, are run like one. They are about turning over profits, promoting the business and creating a modern identity which many other European clubs can aspire to emulate. 

Timo Werner

Take the signing of Timo Werner for example, an 18-year-old striker who they bought from a relegated VfB Stuttgart for £12.6m in 2016. He has since become one of Europe’s most sought after strikers but he waivered off interest to sign a new deal this summer that keeps him at Leipzig until at least 2023. 

Naby Keita, another young gem they bought from Salzburg for £27m in the same year and doubled their money when he moved to Liverpool last year. 

This season, they managed to spend a total of £50m this summer on six players who are all under the age of 23, while also promoted nine players from their academy to join their senior team. 

To put Red Bull’s spending into perspective, their competitors Bayern Munich spent £208m while Borussia Dortmund went against their typical shrewd transfer policy to surpass £196m this summer. 

Promoting youth is a systemic philosophy at RB Leipzig, so it was a match made in heaven when they acquired the youngest coach in the league in 32-year-old Julian Nagelsmann as their manager, who has been described as an amalgamation of Jurgen Klopp and a young-2004-2012 Jose Mourinho. 

Julian Nagelsmann

He was considered to be Zinedine Zidane’s successor at Real Madrid, as well as Wenger’s at Arsenal and most famously rejected a chance to join Bayern Munich last summer. 

Red Bull’s vision is intriguing and it is one which seems to be chosen by the game’s rising stars as the right one for their development despite the club’s lack of history and tradition – a point which was explained by Nagelsmann himself to Spox News: 

"Of course, there are clubs that are totally emotional, and if Gladbach or Cologne fans have been singing their songs for millennia, that's great.” The young coach said on his inaugural press-conference as Leipzig boss. 

“But above all you should value the work - no matter if a club has been there for a short time or decades, When a start-up in the economy comes up with great inventions, nobody says:" They have no tradition, that's a shit product, I do not want that. So it's a horny, young company whose product everyone needs.” 

“No one knew Apple 30 years ago, today almost everyone has an iPhone. Incidentally, even traditional clubs spend money, and tradition does not pay the expensive players. "

Nagelsmann’s point is logical and he has since asked the Bundesliga to consider opening up to investors if the league has any ambition in getting closer to English football. 

but the ‘true’ fans of German football dismiss it as they believe that football clubs are, and should stay, publicly owned social institutions and not become a marketing tool. 

But, the reality of the situation is that even two biggest clubs, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have financial investment from businesses. 

You only have to look at their stadium names and sponsorship deals to know who they are and their influence at the clubs despite their prestigious history. The only difference between themselves and Leipzig is that they have both been established for 100 years. 

Bayern Munich have won 28 league titles since the Bundesliga’s inception in 1963, with the last seven of those coming consecutively while Borussia Dortmund is the second closest thing to a ‘challenger’ to Bayern’s dynasty with their two league titles in 2011 and 2012 being accompanied by a Champions League runner’s up medal. 

Leipzig’s revolutionary ethos looks to be on the way to changing that dynasty.  

And while the majority of German fans are not willing to sacrifice their traditions for ambition – Red Bull's and Nagelsmann’s youth project will happily continue to breathe the life back into German football on their own without any sacred customs or history.