IBy hiring Jurgen Klopp as the new global head of football, Red Bull has made the biggest off-field personnel grab in the sport. The Austrian conglomerate known for its energy drinks and sports ventures managed to secure Klopp’s services while many others, including the US men’s soccer team, had failed, leading CEO Oliver Mintzlaff to describe it as “the strongest signing in Red Bull’s football history “.
Klopp will officially start his role in January 2025, but between now and then the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund coach may take a look at the network of Red Bull-managed teams and spot a franchise in Major League Soccer that needs some attention .
Mintzlaff agrees that his company’s MLS team, New York Red Bulls, is not living up to expectations. When it was put to him that the New York franchise had not benefited the ownership group as they thought, Mintzlaff responded, “That’s absolutely right.”
In the interview, given to the German magazine Kicker Last month, Mintzlaff was critical of MLS progress in general, but also expressed optimism. “MLS is developing, but it is developing far too slowly and is still far from the standard we could imagine for a country like the US,” Mintzlaff said. “Nonetheless, I remain optimistic about soccer in the US, especially with the 2025 Club World Cup and 2026 World Cup in mind. We are currently investing approximately $200 million in a fantastic academy that will open in two years. We have high expectations and are confident that we will produce much more talent in the future.”
This is where Klopp could play a role. While his role will not include day-to-day operations, he will be tasked with developing an overall strategy for Red Bull football, working closely with those in key sporting roles at individual clubs. At New York, this would currently be head of sports Jochen Schneider and sporting director Julian De Guzman. Klopp also sees the role as a mentor for coaches. He previously played alongside and coached New York Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz at Mainz 05.
Klopp’s involvement with Red Bull has raised some eyebrows. He is revered at the three clubs he coached, in part because he valued their unique local identity and connection to their wider fan base. In this respect, Mainz 05, where he also spent most of his playing career, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool were a perfect fit for Klopp’s coach, so it is understandable that his move to Red Bull’s multi-club conglomerate did not go well. with some followers.
Klopp’s idea of what and who a football club should represent seems to clash with multi-club ownership and its global, impersonal branding, but New York Red Bulls fans can hope that some of Klopp’s values permeate their team, which they saw clearly. more towards a Red Bull franchise than a New York/New Jersey franchise. Mintzlaff’s comments that the New York team, which plays in one of the world’s largest sports markets, has not performed as expected among the group has only increased fans’ sense that their team is a feeder team and not a team that is looking for success on its own. It is for this reason that some supporters have called for Red Bull to sell the team, especially after Mintzlaff’s comments coincided with a 5-1 defeat to local rivals New York City FC.
Before Red Bull took over in 2006, the team played under the name New York/New Jersey MetroStars and was among the ten franchises to play in the inaugural season of MLS in 1996. Red Bull’s rebrand removed any New Jersey element from the name, even though the team has always played its MLS matches on that side of the Hudson River and added Red Bull logos across the board. The new soccer-specific stadium in Harrison, New Jersey was named Red Bull Arena.
In terms of success, MLS’s Red Bulls have since finished top of the Eastern Conference five times and topped the overall standings three times to claim the Supporters’ Shield. Red Bull Arena is considered one of the best football-specific stadiums in the country, although it might be more accurate to call it the most European, which is no surprise given the say Red Bull had in the final design of the stadium already planned was. the area.
Despite these positives, the team has not seen success since its last Supporters’ Shield win in 2018. What is most disappointing is that it has not progressed past the first round of the play-offs in that time. In MLS, the champion is considered the winner of the MLS Cup play-offs, rather than the overall winner of the competition, as would be the case with Red Bull’s other clubs. New York Red Bulls have never won the MLS Cup, and it is this title that fans crave. This season the Red Bulls reached the play-offs for the fifteenth year in a row, but there is little optimism among fans that the campaign will end with lifting the MLS Cup.
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In contrast, since Red Bull took over MetroStars, the company’s home team, Red Bull Salzburg, has won the Austrian Bundesliga title in 14 out of 18 seasons, while the German team, RB Leipzig, has risen from the fifth tier of the German football to become a regular of the Champions League and win the DFB Pokal (German Cup) in 2022 and 2023.
By comparison, New York Red Bulls are treading water (to make matters even more frustrating, New York City FC, which only started play in 2015, won the MLS Cup in 2021). Many might even agree with Mintzlaff’s comments that MLS is developing too slowly or that the team is hampered by the league’s roster restrictions, but at the same time, others are doing more within those parameters than the Red Bulls.
Klopp can bring optimism to some supporters who had all but given up on the team winning an MLS Cup under Red Bull. A league that, in Lionel Messi, boasts one of the best players to ever play the game now boasts, in a more roundabout way, one of the best players to ever coach the sport. Given the excitement surrounding the game in the US at the moment, Klopp would like to have some involvement in the United States – after all, his job title uses the word ‘soccer’ instead of ‘soccer’. New York Red Bulls offer a way in, and fans will certainly be eager to see their team catch his eye.