Red Bull and Jurgen Klopp

Halfway through his final season in charge of Liverpool, the grind of day-to-day management had clearly begun to take its toll on Jurgen Klopp.

“It’s not to do with coaching any more,” the German manager sighed. “It’s just recovery and then meetings, that’s how it is.” Three weeks later, Klopp confirmed that he would step down as Liverpool boss at the end of the 2023/24 campaign. After a summer spent enjoying his longest break from management since taking over Mainz in 2001, Red Bull unveiled Klopp as their new ‘Head of Global Soccer’.

Here’s what that grand and vague title means for a former manager who has plenty more meetings to navigate when he takes on the role at the start of 2025.

Klopp’s brief is broad but relatively straightforward. The former manager of Borussia Dortmund – a club which has routinely and vehemently protested Red Bull’s investment throughout the world of football – will oversee every club under the energy drink’s umbrella.

Red Bull’s press release explained that Klopp “will not be involved in the clubs’ day-to-day operations, but will provide strategic vision, supporting individual sporting directors in advancing the Red Bull philosophy”. The German’s sphere of influence will also extend to scouting, player training and coaching development.

Ralf Rangnick was formerly Red Bull’s global soccer head before he embarked upon a disastrous interim spell as Manchester United manager. The studious tactician first took on a sporting director role at RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg in 2012, installing a high-energy style of football with young players scouted from undervalued areas, particularly in Africa.

“The playing style should be highly recognisable,” Rangnick told the Coaches’ Voice, “so much so that, even on a bad day, you can still recognise the kind of football that the team wants to play.”

This is not the first time that Klopp has followed in the footsteps of Rangnick. The “heavy metal” pressing which the former Liverpool boss has based his philosophy around was introduced to the German footballing public by Rangnick. The former Hoffenheim boss first came across the benefits of working against the ball when his sixth-tier side, FC Viktoria Backnang, played a friendly against Valeriy Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kyiv in 1983. “A few minutes in,” Rangnick recalled, “I had to stop and count their players. Something was wrong. Did they have 13 or 14 men on the pitch?”

Klopp had said that he was “running out of energy” when he left Liverpool and has come under criticism from fans who were taken aback by this unforeseen career move. The 57-year-old explained his decision: “By joining Red Bull at a global level, I want to develop, improve and support the incredible football talent that we have at our disposal.”

On the specifics of his duties, Klopp said: “I see my role primarily as a mentor for the coaches and management of the Red Bull clubs but ultimately I am one part of an organisation that is unique, innovative and forward looking.”

CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments at Red Bull, Oliver Mintzlaff, called Klopp “a game changer”, citing his managerial record as well as his “extraordinary skills and charisma”.

It’s easy to spot a club owned by Red Bull. The name, shirt sponsor and colour scheme of each franchise all take their inspiration from the energy drink company founded by Dietrich Mateschitz and Chaleo Yoovidhya in 1984. Three of RB’s four top-flight clubs play in stadiums called Red Bull Arena.

Salzburg was the first footballing investment Mateschitz made in 2005. The club had previously been known as Austria Salzburg – and even carried the prefix ‘Casino’ at one point – but fans did not take kindly to the sweeping changes Red Bull made, most notably ditching the traditional purple strip in favour of red and white. Salzburg had won three league titles in their 72-year history pre-RB and have claimed 14 in the subsequent two decades. However, the club’s ten-year stranglehold of the top-flight crown was broken in 2023/24 by Sturm Graz.

Red Bull branched out to the US in 2006, but have had nowhere near the same success. New York Red Bulls have only reached MLS Cup once since the takeover and are still waiting for their first piece of major silverware. The Brazilian branch of the multi-club project, consisting of Red Bull Bragantino and the club’s secondary team which operates in the third tier, was only launched in 2019.

Bundesliga contenders RB Leipzig are the most high profile and controversial branch of the Red Bull dynasty. The side from East Germany was reborn in 2009. Red Bull circumvented the nation’s famous 50+1 rule – which theoretically prevents corporations or wealthy individuals from owning the majority of shares in a club – by ensuring that most of the club’s members were Red Bull employees.

Brand names are prohibited in the Bundesliga so the ‘RB’ in RB Leipzig doesn’t stand for the fizzy drink empire. Instead, Leipzig’s prefix is ‘RasenBallsport’, which literally translates to ‘lawn ball sports’ but was only applied so that it shares the same initials.

After taking the Bundesliga by surprise with an impressive second-place finish during their debut season in German top flight in 2016/17, while Rangnick was in charge, the project stalled until Julian Nagelsmann was appointed, leading Leipzig to the 2020 Champions League semi-final and another runners-up position in the Bundesliga the following year.

Leipzig have evolved beyond the blistering pressing football which underscored their rise up the footballing pyramid to develop a proficiency in possession. The two-time DFB Pokal winners have finished in the Bundesliga’s top four at the end of each of the last six seasons – a feat only Bayern Munich have also achieved. Part of Klopp’s brief will no doubt revolve around helping Leipzig finally win their first Bundesliga title.

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