Some insight on RB Leipzig & Red Bull Football

Many will only know Austrian energy drink maker Red Bull as being active in Formula 1 and adventure sports under owner Dietrich Mateschitz, but they actually own three football clubs in Austria, Germany and the United States besides running two Academies in Brazil and Ghana. With these five entities in four continents Red Bull has the biggest network of clubs/academies in the world of football under their ownership.

It all started in Salzburg in 2005, which is close to the Red Bull headquarters in Walz-Siezenheim, with the takeover of ailing SV Austria Salzburg then called SV Wüstenrot Salzburg and the club was rebranded as Red Bull Salzburg. It has won the Austrian Bundesliga a number of times, but owner Mateschitz has wanted the club to play amongst the best in the UEFA Champions League but the club has failed again and again in the qualifiers.

Only a year later Red Bull purchased the New York MetroStars in 2006 and it completely re-brand the franchise, changing the name, colours, and logo. From then on the MLS team has been known as New York Red Bulls. This was followed by the formation of the Academies of Red Bull Brasil in 2007 and Red Bull Ghana in 2008, which are supposed to work as feeder clubs to the bigger entities in Europe and North America.

In May 2009 followed the takeover of German fifth division club SSV Markranstädt and the renaming into RB Leipzig with the RB not standing for Red Bull but RasenBallsport Leipzig due to German football rules which do not allow the name of sponsors to be attached to the club name. At the time SSV Markranstädt were a local club in Leipzig playing fifth division football and with little ambitions to move higher. This changed with the Red Bull takeover as their new owners had the aim of getting the club into the top tier Bundesliga in a nine year period until 2018 with an initial investment of 100 Million Euros.

It worked well in year one under manager Tino Vogel with the club getting promoted into the fourth division. But over the last couple of years under coaches Thomas Oral and Peter Pacult with the team playing in the former 2006 World Cup stadium with a capacity of 44,345 now renamed Red Bull Arena they didn't get promoted though having the highest budget across leagues in the fourth tier of German football. This season Andreas Zorniger with some changes amongst the players has been given the task to gain promotion to the 3.Liga.

Now Indian goalkeeper Subrata Pal joins the club on a trial to show what he is capable off and if successful then Subrata could be offered a contract at RB Leipzig.

Here the article on India Keeper Subrata Pal set for German trial at RB Leipzig