This is Ralf Rangnick, new Manchester United coach and ideologue of the new German football

Updated:11/29/2021 23:32h

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When Manchester United confirmed the dismissal of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, no one in the ecosystem surrounding European football expected that the next coach to run the Old Trafford bench would be Ralf Rangnick, a 63-year-old German who until recently spent his days as sports director of Lokomotiv Moscow. However, and despite the unknown of his name outside the German borders, this man is attributed several miracles in the Bundesliga, where his surname is an authority at the height of the greatest. “His arrival in the Premier League is not good news for the other teams”Klopp said after hearing the news without a hint of scorn on his face.

Klopp, who describes his compatriot as a teacher, knows that United will be a more organized team, more intense and, above all, much more dangerous. But who is this man? Where did his legend come from?

An enthusiast of this sport, but lacking the minimum talent to be a professional footballer, the Backnang man focused all his passion for this art to be a coach, a field in which he quickly attracted attention thanks to his constant study of the game and his tactical innovations. Thus, after several successful years in the regional divisions, he had his first chance in the Bundesliga, at the Stuttgart, team of his loves of which he was a youth squad. There he spent almost three seasons and experienced the elite, but he did not leave his mark, something he would do, and in an extraordinary way, in all the clubs of his future. First of all, he ascended to Hannover 96 a First division; then he was runner-up in the League with the Schalke 04; and later, in his debut film on the bench, he led Third Hoffenheim to the top of the German top competition in just three seasons (he was even winter champion in the first experience of the small club from Sinsheim in the Bundesliga) . Furthermore, this resulting whirlwind was accompanied by a hyper-attractive game where verticality and pressure after loss (the famous ‘gegenpressing’) were its hallmarks. This style created a school, laid the foundations of the new German football and, directly influenced by his ideas, coaches such as the aforementioned emerged. Klopp, Tuchel (whom he put in charge of the Stuttgart youth) or Nagelsmann (Current Bayern coach whom Rangnick hired to direct Leipzig, his great project off the bench).

Ideologist of the RB Leipzig

After his journey in Hoffenheim, Rangnick returned to Gelsenkirchen, where he directed Raul, I won the Cup and reached the semifinals of the Champions League. However, his desire to train was no longer that of yesteryear and, cajoled by the Red Bull project around Leipzig and Salzburg, he decided to immerse himself in the offices to take up sports management. In his new role he signed, among others, to Kimmich already Werner, and was essential in the purchase of Haaland by Salzburg. In eastern Germany, where he took over the team’s bench in two short stages, he completed his work: he created a club culture from scratch and turned it into a European powerhouse. And now, after a brief stint in Moscow, he has decided to go back to training. He arrives at United, a club that plays slow in the most fleeting competition on the planet, to try to return them to their place in the Premier. It will be temporary, yes, but his link with the English will continue in the offices next year. Old Trafford wants to modernize.

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