“I decided to accept the offer as it was a new experience,” Rangnick says. The new Leipzig had just been promoted from the German fifth tier, but then spent a couple of seasons unsuccessfully trying to secure promotion to the third division.ĮR, WHAT? Eric Cantona 'confirms' his appointment as Manchester United manager The latter had been founded three years earlier after Red Bull bought SSV Markranstadt, a tiny team from a town a few miles outside Leipzig. Rangnick wasn’t keen, so Red Bull returned with a second proposal: to become the sporting director of not one but two football clubs: Red Bull Salzburg as well as RB Leipzig. Initially, Mateschitz wanted Rangnick to become the new manager of Red Bull Salzburg. It was from Red Bull’s supremo Dietrich Mateschitz. Three days after I went for the interview, they informed me that Sam Allardyce would be taking over as manager.”īack in 2012, when the opportunity arose to succeed Hodgson at The Hawthorns (Steve Clarke was eventually appointed), another offer was also on the table. I said, ‘How realistic is that?’ He said that if it was up to him it would be very realistic, but that there were some other people on the board who’d also have a say, and a few of them thought it should be an Englishman. After the Euros, he called me again and asked if I would come for an interview for the England job. “He offered me the job but I knew he was probably going to join the FA, so I turned it down. “Dan first contacted me in 2012 and invited me to an interview at West Bromwich Albion,” the 58-year-old says.
FA technical director Dan Ashworth wanted Ralf to head to Wembley for a chat. With a CV as good as that, perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that he received a phone call last summer, not long after England’s loss to Iceland at Euro 2016. And when he’d done that, he set about guiding RB Leipzig from the fourth tier to the Bundesliga, and an astonishing debut campaign when they were the only team to ever really rival Bayern Munich. Rangnick is also the man who guided Schalke to the Champions League semi-finals for the only time in their history. IN THE MAG Best young players special! 22 who'll rule 2022, starring Haaland, Foden, Greenwood, Saka, Bellingham, Vinicius Jr and more