Year in review 2022: May – RB Leipzig wins the DFB Cup

Even if many of the long-established supporters do not want to admit it: RB Leipzig has arrived. In Leipzig, in the east and in football Germany. The club has found a niche with its image as a “family club” and fills it. Many who had turned away from football in Leipzig and the surrounding federal states years ago came back, while others switched to RB Leipzig because of the prospect of high-quality football.

Of course, the club plays a lot of money in the hands – but how these funds are used is not easy to imitate the RBL managers. Talents are scouted worldwide and added to the RB system as early as possible. They can gain match practice with the clubs in Liefering, Salzburg or Brazil before going to Leipzig. Only in my own youth work on the Cottaweg does it not want to be fruitful. No matter how you feel about RB, you can’t help but notice that the club will probably continue to be a hot title contender in the future.

For a long time it was not foreseeable that the last season would come to such an end. After Julian Nagelsmann left Bayern Munich, Jesse Marsch was brought to Leipzig as a coach from the RB cosmos. But the hoped-for success did not materialize under the American. A few months after taking office, he had to leave. Domenico Tedesco came to the Cottaweg somewhat surprisingly for him. The still young trainer once earned his first spurs at Erzgebirge Aue and FC Schalke 04 and most recently worked in Russia at Spartak Moscow.

With the RasenBallern he managed an impressive series in the league and in the cup, which culminated in the renewed Champions League qualification and success in the national cup. But just a few months after the triumph in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, his credit was already gone. After a weak start to the season, the mechanisms of the business once again took hold. Cup winner coach Tedesco had to go to Donetsk in early September after a hefty 4-1 defeat in the Champions League and was replaced by previous BVB coach Marco Rose.