Why Red Bull believe they can crack English football

Leeds United manager Jurgen Klopp tears down the Elland Road touchline, arms aloft in celebration. His team have just scored a last-minute winner against his former club Liverpool and are on course to lift the league title for the first time since 1992.

Red on the shirt? Fans can forgive that when the partnership with Red Bull has brought this level of success. 

Thanks to the investment and expertise of the Austrian energy drinks giant, Leeds have risen to the top under one of the world's great coaches. Who cares about the banners in the away end taunting Leeds for 'selling out'. What is not to like?

Rewind and reset for a moment. It is still 2024 and, with Klopp appointed 'global head of soccer' yesterday, supporters are looking closely again at the controversial Red Bull multi-club ownership model.

When Red Bull announced in May that they had taken a minority stake in Leeds, they thought it was a chance too good to miss. But the grand plan will continue to split opinion.

A triumph of recruitment and strategy that has turned Red Bull Salzburg and Leipzig into serious players on the European stage? Or a cynical money-making scheme that robs historic institutions of their identities and serves only to improve Red Bull's bottom line? Just the word 'soccer' is jarring to English ears.

'It's about being clear on identity,' Everton director of football Kevin Thelwell, head of sport at New York Red Bulls from 2020-22, told Mail Sport. 'It's not just about how we play.

'There is a philosophy for every area – the medical department, sports science, analytics. It's about talking continually about the golden threads that lead to success.

'When we recruit, we look at positional profiles not only to help New York, but who could translate to Leipzig in Germany, or Bragantino in Brazil, and help other parts of the plan.

'It's not just about ploughing your own furrow. You have to think about the wider implications for the entire group in every decision you make.'

It has been difficult for Red Bull in Germany. Their takeover and rebrand of fifth-division club SSV Markranstadt in 2009 generated widespread vitriol. Even more than in England, the bond between fans and clubs in Germany is considered sacred and Red Bull's move seemed to sully that identity.

Leipzig became pariahs, with rival clubs admitting they would even prefer multiple champions Bayern Munich to succeed rather than the newcomers. That did not stop Red Bull then, though, and it will not deter them now.

As well as Leipzig – whose official name is RasenBallsport (lawn sports) Leipzig – Salzburg and New York, there is Bragantino in Brazil under the same umbrella.

Imagine that in England, where the roots of professional football are deeper than perhaps in any other country. Institutions more than a century old turned into satellites, providing players to help an overseas club win their domestic title or a European trophy. The very thought of it would make many supporters boil with rage.

Salzburg use Liefering, in the Austrian second division, as a feeder club. While it might be an effective way to introduce players to European football, imagine the uproar if Leeds were to suggest a similar partnership with Huddersfield Town or Bradford City.

Though there are multi-club structures in the United Kingdom, the English arm of the business – whether it is Manchester City, Chelsea or Aston Villa – leads the way. It is hard to see it working any other way.

Red Bull also agreed a partnership with Nottingham Forest in September which, at this stage, is solely to promote the drink across Forest's platforms. Nevertheless, two of English football's most famous names now have ties to one of the sport's most divisive forces.

Though their logo dominates the Leeds jersey, the words 'Red Bull' are absent and there is no prospect - God forbid - of the club being renamed 'Red Bull Leeds'.

At this stage, recruitment is ostensibly separate, too: of the players who arrived in the summer, only Brenden Aaronson has a background in the Red Bull system, and he was returning from a loan spell at Union Berlin after originally joining Leeds in 2022. Equally, none of the 19 who left Leeds joined Red Bull clubs.

This gentler approach suggests Red Bull have learned from their mistakes and understand they cannot take a 'crash, bang, wallop' approach to English football.

Red Bull believe their system is robust enough to work anywhere, so why would it not prosper in the wealthiest, most influential domestic football structure in the world? If owners can produce a successful team, fans will forgive just about anything else, and Red Bull are supremely confident in what they do.

Their teams play aggressive, high-intensity, high-pressing football – expressed most effectively by the Leipzig team who reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2020 under current Germany head coach Julian Nagelsmann. 

Timo Werner, Dayot Upamecano, Ibrahima Konate and Christopher Nkunku were part of that squad and have since been sold on for a combined £172million.

They search for tactical innovations to share across the group, as former Brentford head of analytics Ted Knutson explained in a recent episode of The Transfer Flow podcast. 

'The Red Bull teams are notorious for aggressive high pressing but when we were working for Brentford, we noticed at a certain point they started do long balls forward,' he said.

'They would cede possession of the ball in exchange for territory. The opponent would have a throw-in in their own third of the field and the Red Bull team would press aggressively, hopefully win it back and go on from there.'

This sort of avant-garde thinking is applied to the transfer market as well. Erling Haaland is the poster boy for the Red Bull recruiters, with the world's deadliest centre forward joining Salzburg from Molde for £7.2m in January 2019, but he is not the only example.

Through close links with 12 Management, the agency run by former West Ham and Tottenham forward Freddie Kanoute, Red Bull are at the vanguard of talent identification in Africa. 

They also have a fruitful relationship with the JMG Academy in Mali, considered one of the best on that continent. Salzburg have five players from Mali in their first-team squad and Amadou Haidara 'graduated' to Leipzig in 2019. 

When Nene Dorgeles, Mamady Diambou or Moussa Yeo moves on, don't rule out Leeds as a possible destination, especially if they are promoted to the Premier League this season.

The knowledge base is not limited to football, either. 'Red Bull have athletic performance centres to provide support for all their athletes,' Thelwell explained. 'The idea was to create links to the wider Red Bull sporting network and share good practice not just in football but across all sports.'

It really depends on your point of view. To some fans, not even installing Klopp as head coach, Haaland up front and Formula One world champion Max Verstappen to drive the team bus would change their minds.

There has already been ferocious criticism of Klopp from fans of Liverpool and another former club, Borussia Dortmund, whose fans have been vicious towards Leipzig since they reached the top level. 

Klopp returned to Dortmund in September for a testimonial fixture. You suspect he may not be welcomed quite so warmly by supporters the next time he visits.

Though Klopp said again on Wednesday 'I don't see myself on the sideline anymore', few coaches can resist the lure of matchday for too long. And it is not much of a leap to imagine him in charge of a club in the Red Bull group.

Maybe Klopp will indeed perform his fist-pumping celebration in front of the Kop again. The one at Elland Road, that is.