While he sat at his luxurious villa on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Jurgen Klopp watched the team of his past play the club of his future 900 miles away in Leipzig.
The 57-year-old German’s impending arrival as a key figure within the Red Bull system served as a bearded and bespectacled elephant in the room in the run up to the Champions League clash between RB Leipzig and Liverpool last month.
Though absent, Klopp was spiritually present in the run up to that match in press conferences, in conversations, and in whispers around the Red Bull Arena – a venue he will doubtless become well-acquainted with in the weeks and months to come.
Before a ball was kicked, Mail Sport traveled to Germany to speak to decision makers, players, and coaches within RB Leipzig to better understand what Klopp’s upcoming role will be – not just for the current Bundesliga front-runners, but within the system as a whole.
The picture painted shows Klopp taking an advisory role within the entire group – and while this will likely benefit the system as a whole, it will nonetheless remain controversial in Germany, where some view Klopp as having turned his back on the teams he once led.
Jurgen Klopp’s addition to the Red Bull soccer system could spark big changes for its clubs
Klopp’s official title for Red Bull is Head of Global Football – a role he will begin on New Year’s Day 2025 on a four-year contract.
For specifics, the clubs within the Red Bull system are RB Leipzig in Germany, the New York Red Bulls of MLS, and Red Bull Bragantino of Brazil’s Serie A as well as newly-acquired Omiya Ardija in Japan. This does not include Red Bull Salzburg in Austria, with that club under a separate management structure.
While not in charge of one specific club, Klopp will instead provide oversight to the clubs within the entire system.
As RB Leipzig managing director Johann Plenge told Mail Sport, Klopp’s role will be a ‘balance between having someone who gives you an objective, questions, challenges things that you can only challenge if you’re part of the system, but you’re not actually a colleague seeing each other each and every day. That’s what we expect from him.’
Plenge added: ‘I expect him to be a very, very important person, but probably more in the background. He will not sit next to the coach or on pitch during matches, but he will be a very important person that our key leaders in the club are able to talk to and to listen to what he has in terms of experience.’
So his task is laid out before him: he’ll provide advice to the clubs and Leipzig hopes Klopp will also be a boost to recruitment – not only of players, but of personnel too.
RB Leipzig chief Johann Plenge calls Klopp’s hire ‘one of the best decisions we could take’
Plenge told Mail Sport he was ‘100 per cent convinced’ Klopp would aid recruitment, calling his hire ‘one of the best decisions we could take as a group.’
‘[He can] make the existing staff and players we do have better, but also attract new ones,’ Plenge revealed. ‘If… there’s a vacancy for a new sporting director – for example – having him on board, someone that can attract the best people for this position to come to whatever club it is and work with them is something that is, I think, every club, not only the Bundesliga, is jealous about.’
Jealous is probably the correct word, but irate could be more apt as well.
For all the controversy surrounding RB Leipzig, the addition of Klopp has received backlash among those who believe Die Roten Bullen are the most impure club in the country for its perceived open flouting of the 50+1 rule.
The most vocal amongst the dissidents are the ultras at Klopp’s two former Bundesliga clubs: Mainz and Borussia Dortmund.
Mainz ultras unfurled a banner at a recent match, as did Dortmund fans. Former Dortmund player Kevin Grosskreutz said: ‘When I see him, I’ll tell him I think it’s s**t he did something like that.’
Klopp himself addressed this in comments to Toni Kroos’ podcast recently, saying: ‘I did not want to step on anyone’s toes. I love all my former clubs, but I don’t know what I could have done so that everyone is happy… I did not see myself on the sidelines for now. It was clear for me that I would do something – so then Red Bull came.’
One person familiar with the kind of backlash that you get from joining this club is David Raum, the Leipzig fullback.
Plenge says Klopp will take more of an advisory role and won’t be ‘on pitch during matches’
Klopp’s hire has been criticized in Germany, especially from Mainz and Dortmund fans
‘I’m not surprised,’ Raum said when asked about the negative reception Klopp received. ‘It’s typical in Germany. I don’t know, in the Premier League, [backlash is] not so common, there [they also have] big investors.
Raum added: ‘It’s a big sign in Germany that a guy like Jurgen Klopp joins the Red Bull family. So maybe it’s a sign also for all the fans outside that they have to start to accept us, that they have to start to accept what we achieved and what we want to do.’
What the team wants to do is win titles – and at least in Leipzig, they seem closer to that goal than the other Red Bull clubs, having already won the DFB-Pokal twice in the last three seasons.
Leipzig currently sit tied on points with Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga table, but the New York Red Bulls remain one of two original MLS teams to have never won the MLS Cup and Red Bull Bragantino haven’t finished higher than sixth in Serie A since the Austrian drinks giant took over.
Plenge told reporters, ‘It seems to be a slight difference, but actually it’s a big one – whether you state that you want to compete for titles or that you actually want to win titles. I think Jurgen is going for the second one.’
In New York and Brazil, he will have his work cut out for him. But in Leipzig, he’d find a team as dedicated to cultivating talent in the German top flight as Klopp was in Dortmund.
Leipzig fullback David Raum hopes that Klopp’s hire will lead to German fans ‘accepting’ them
Leipzig is poised for trophies – having already won two German cups (right) in 2022 and 2023
But titles will be harder to come by for the New York Red Bulls (L) and Red Bull Bragantino (R)
Recall those BVB teams and the names Klopp helped develop: Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski, Mario Goetze, Ilkay Gundogan and Mats Hummels among many others.
Leipzig has already been dedicated to garnering its own track record for player development, with the likes of Dani Olmo, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ibrahima Konate, Christopher Nkunku, and Josko Gvardiol spending time at the Cottaweg academy.
Plenge said these players developed the club’s current image as a generator of talent on their own but, ‘I think Jurgen is going to be a very, very strong argument to join our football project due to his track record, due to his name, the way he is as a person.’
It’s not clear if Klopp will have any help in developing the so-called ‘Red Bull identity’ style of play the clubs love to teach players, but if there was anyone that could help evolve it, it would be a man with Klopp’s CV.
Leipzig manager Marco Rose – who played alongside and under Klopp – spoke further on how he is as a person in a press conference: ‘We had situations at Mainz when we felt helpless, but Kloppo gave us the feeling that we wanted to play again right away, the next day… We weren’t always of the same opinion, but I learned a lot from him.’
An exterior look at RB Leipzig’s training facility in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
Leipzig manager Marco Rose praised Klopp saying he ‘learned a lot from him’ at Mainz
With Klopp’s role set, Red Bull will hope that success follows in his wake
For a brand which wants to be associated with winning, they may have picked the perfect person to finally put them over the top.
All that remains are the results. Klopp may not be directly responsible for bringing them, but he’ll nonetheless serve as a magnet to attract those who can be successful to Leipzig, New York, and Brazil.
It’s that sheer magnetism alone which makes this hire so important for Red Bull. The hope is that it’s only a matter of time before the results follow and Klopp can add on to his long list of footballing successes.