TSG Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig led Ralf Rangnick from the Regionalliga into the Bundesliga. Now he would like to continue this “club building” as a freelancer, but he does not see himself as a classic consultant.
“I am founding a GmbH, a football consultancy based on four pillars,” said the 63-year-old in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. These four areas would represent what he has done in the past 15 years at RB Leipzig and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, he said.
According to him, it is about “club building” and looking after coaches, managers and sports directors as well as players. It is not his goal to build a large agency. “My motto is more like: small but nice.”
Rangnick does not want to be a player or coach consultant in the traditional sense. “It’s not about promoting careers primarily commercially. It’s about content development, from players, coaches, managers and professionals. In football there is still scope for upgrading individual professions, ”he told the newspaper.
Spartak Moscow as the first customer
According to his statements, Rangnick’s first customer is the Russian cup winner Spartak Moscow. “The club asked me four months ago for a sporting status quo analysis. I made it and there was a presentation about it in Moscow, ”he said.
After founding his new company, Rangnick only wants to return to football as a coach or sports director in exceptional cases. “Right now I have the feeling that with the total package of all-round support that we will be offering in the future, I can give something back to football. To get me away from this job – that would have to be a very special offer, ”he said.
Rangnick had worked as a Bundesliga coach for years before moving to TSG Hoffenheim in 2006 and leading the club from the regional league to the Bundesliga. Rangnick is not only considered the head of Hoffenheim’s success, from 2012 he also accompanied RB Leipzig’s rise from the regional league to a Champions League participant in various functions.
Rangnick’s contract expired in 2020, after which he flirted with an engagement with his ex-club Schalke 04, but then renounced it.
