Red Bull’s football empire has long been regarded as one of the best examples of the talent development of footballers and staff and perhaps the most important example of how a multi-club system can actually work and thrive in European football and beyond. However, the Austrian energy drink giant’s sporting ventures – which also include Formula 1 racing and extreme sports – are also regularly derided as artificial and lack the traditional history expected of European football clubs – especially in Germany.
European flagship club RB Leipzig is based in the German Bundesliga and has two consecutive DFB Pokal titles to their name, as well as eight consecutive seasons in European competition, including the UEFA Champions League and the semi-finals of the Europa League. Red Bull Salzburg was the group’s first foray into football in 2005 and has thoroughly dominated the Austrian Bundesliga and regularly competed in Europe, despite being taken over by Leipzig as the main hub of the project.
There is also New York Red Bulls, a franchise well known to Major League Soccer fans, while Red Bull Bragantino is on the rise in Brazilian football and now plays in the top flight, but 2024 has seen a revival in the group’s ambitions . As well as a minority stake in EFL Championship team Leeds United, which could one day take Red Bull’s football operations into the Premier League, Asian expansion was on the cards when Japanese third-tier club Omiya Ardija was acquired.
Next in Red Bull’s sights is a proposed minority stake in France’s Ligue 2 with Paris FC, alongside the Arnault family who own LVMH together with figurehead Bernard. ranked by Forbes as the richest man in the world in 2024 — an unexpectedly powerful combination with enormous growth potential through Paris’s talent pool. However, the biggest indicator of Red Bull’s legitimacy in football came earlier on Wednesday with the signing of former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp from the beginning of 2025 as head of global football.
“By joining Red Bull at a global level, I want to develop, improve and support the incredible football talent we have at our disposal,” Klopp said of his move. “There are many ways we can do this, from using the elite knowledge and experience that Red Bull possesses to learning from other sports and other industries. Together we can discover what is possible. I see my role mainly as a mentor for the coaches and management of the Red Bull clubs, but ultimately I am part of an organization that is unique, innovative and future-oriented. Like I said, this couldn’t excite me more.”
Red Bull as a pipeline of both coaching and playing talent is nothing new, with the Salzburg-Leipzig link expertly put together by Ralf Rangnick and a popular landing spot for African players, but this is a monumental coup and undoubtedly the biggest signing in Red’s history Bull. football history. American Jesse Marsch, Canada’s current coach, is another example of the impact of the Red Bull connection on careers, with the former NY Red Bulls manager going on to coach RB Salzburg and RB Leipzig. The potential power of the combined German, Austrian, American, Brazilian, English, Japanese and French talent pools is phenomenal and when combined with Klopp, who has excelled at competing at the highest level by developing talent without necessarily having the biggest budget, he is incredible smart.
The popular German coach has never been one to shy away from controversial topics and regularly offers intelligent commentary, but will now be the subject of an acid test given German football’s struggle with the concept of Red Bull ownership and subsequent rise from Leipzig. The group’s legitimacy in the Bundesliga has often been questioned, along with that of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim – another story of a meteoric rise from the regional levels to the top of German football thanks to a wealthy benefactor.
However, Klopp taking on this role suggests that Red Bull’s legitimacy is no longer a matter of time as it used to be; it is already there and has been very well deserved on the pitch over the years, despite criticism of the non-traditional nature of the rise of the likes of Leipzig. The energy drink football empire has refined its structure over the years and now functions as perhaps the slickest multi-club operation in the sport and Klopp could now be on the scene just in time to oversee the brightest period of its development into so far.