SALZBURG: Jürgen Klopp’s charm offensive as Red Bull’s head of global soccer began in Salzburg, Austria on Tuesday when the former Liverpool manager was officially presented in his new role and hit back at critics of the move.
Klopp’s decision to join the energy drinks giant to develop its branded soccer clubs around the world has confounded fans of his previous clubs – particularly in Germany, where as coach he led Mainz to Bundesliga promotion in 2004, then Borussia Dortmund to Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012.
On Sunday, Klopp was in Leipzig to see the Red Bull-backed team reclaim fourth place with a 4-2 win over Werder Bremen.
“I thought, do they not deserve good football?” Klopp asked, referring to the Leipzig supporters. “I really felt they deserve it. And it’s not only there, it’s in Salzburg, the football fans in New York deserve it if they want to be part of that journey, in Japan, in Brazil, they deserve support, improvement, all these kind of things. That’s why I want to do it. I love football.”
But Klopp is joining an organization that’s seen by many soccer fans in Germany as the antithesis of everything they love about the game.
Supporters in Mainz responded with protests when Red Bull announced Klopp’s signing in October.
“Have you forgotten everything we gave you?” asked one banner during a match against Leipzig, referring to Klopp’s tearful farewell speech when he left the club after 18 years as a player and coach in 2008.
Klopp’s decision also stung in Dortmund.
“Jürgen knows full well he could have almost picked his job at Borussia Dortmund,” the club’s chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke told Sport Bild last month.
Watzke said he remained friends with Klopp, but that they would no longer be able talk about Dortmund. Watzke had previously said that Leipzig only existed as a marketing campaign.
“Football is played there to get a drinks can to perform,” Watzke said in 2016.
The Red Bull website pays tribute to co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz for developing “not only a new product but also a unique marketing concept” when he launched the drink in 1987.
Red Bull, which announced record turnover of 10.5 billion euros in 2023, started locally when it began investing in extreme sports in Austria in 1988. It branched into motorsport in the following year by sponsoring Austrian Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger, and went international in 1994 by sponsoring windsurfers Robby Naish and Björn Dunkerbeck.
The company’s foray into soccer started in 2005 when it bought SV Austria Salzburg and rebranded the club with its own livery. Despite opposition from the club’s supporters, violet was discarded in favor of Red Bull’s red and white, and the club was renamed Red Bull Salzburg.
The company repeated the feat in Germany in 2009 when it purchased the playing license of fifth-tier SSV Markranstädt, and rebranded the club as it had Salzburg. The club was named Rasenballsport (lawn-ball-sport) Leipzig as the company was prohibited from using its name for the club. But it financed the team’s steady ascent to the Bundesliga, which it reached in 2016.
Klopp will oversee a stable of Red Bull-backed clubs around the world that also includes New York Red Bulls, Bragantino in Brazil and Omiya Ardija in Japan. The company also has a minority stake in second-tier English club Leeds, and is set to become a minority stakeholder in French second-division club Paris FC, which Klopp observed in action on Saturday.
“I think if you want to understand you can understand, if you don’t want to understand, you will not. That’s how it is,” Klopp said of the criticism.