FC Bayern is on the verge of upheaval. Experienced trainer Rangnick could design this. He has an offer from Munich. What does the club hope to achieve from the creator with the effervescent taste?
Does Ralf Rangnick think back to a taunt from 2008 these days? “If you want to hear quick sayings, you have to go to Munich. If you want to see quick football, Hoffenheim is the right place for you.” As the coach of TSG Hoffenheim at the time, Rangnick was excited about this in the direction of FC Bayern.
A good decade and a half later, according to consistent media reports, Austria’s national coach has a good chance of providing great football even for the record champions – and he now has an offer from Bayern. By the way, Rangnick had said some time ago that he regretted the little provocation from back then.
Rangnick is considered a preferred coaching candidate – of course only after Leverkusen champion coach Xabi Alonso and national coach Julian Nagelmann canceled the Bayern bosses. After a season in which the Munich team was clearly left behind in the Bundesliga, he should – as a C solution – carry out a change.
Apparently FC Bayern wants Rangnick
Rangnick has an “offer from Bayern Munich” and he is thinking about it, the sports director of the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) Peter Schöttel told ORF in an interview. He was referring to a joint meeting in which ÖFB President Klaus Mitterdorfer was also involved.
It is now important for “everyone involved to receive a decision promptly.” “I think it will have to be done in a week or two,” Schöttel continued. Last but not least, FC Bayern will “of course give a deadline because they also want to know”.
Rangnick ponders: “Do I even want that?”
With these statements, Rangnick’s personnel picked up speed in the evening after the Swabian had only admitted that the Munich team had approached him. “There was contact from Bayern Munich,” he confirmed to the Austrian portal “90minuten.at” in an interview published on Wednesday, but added: “At the moment there is no reason to deal with it intensively and specifically.”
When asked when that would be the case, he replied: “The moment Bayern would say: We want you. And then I have to ask myself: Do I even want that?” And according to ÖFB sports director Schöttel, FC Bayern, from whom there were initially no official statements, actually wants to.
The ÖFB relies on the relationship of trust
At the end of June, shortly before his possible start at Säbener Straße, Rangnick will be 66 years old. Should he then start a new life at the biggest club of his career so far? There has been no comment from Bayern this week on the speculation and reports. The ÖFB, for whom Rangnick is preparing the national team as national coach for the European Championships and is also supposed to be the project manager, initially soberly referred to the German’s valid contract beyond the summer.
“We have maintained a very trusting relationship over the last two years. We will continue to do so. Depending on the direction in which his decision goes, we will discuss together what happens next,” said Schöttel.
Control-obsessed or “development worker”?
What do the people of Munich hope for from Rangnick? First of all, he knows the Bundesliga very well, has been a coach and manager in Stuttgart, Schalke, Hannover 96 and RB Leipzig and once promoted the village club Hoffenheim as autumn champions. He is considered very meticulous and obsessed with control.
Rangnick said in a Red Bull magazine two years ago that he sees himself as a “development worker,” and he wants to be a maker and motivator. In a club like FC Bayern, where decades-old movers and shakers like Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge sit on the supervisory board, the arrival of a coach who is used to a lot of power and creative freedom could result in an exciting constellation.
“There thinks differently than the Mainstream”
If Rangnick, who was also traded at Säbener Strasse in 2019 after Niko Kovac left the club in 2019, actually becomes a coach in Munich, the long-time Red Bull inspiration would meet some executives with a taste for fizzy drinks. Sports director Max Eberl, youth director Jochen Sauer and sports director Christoph Freund all have an energy drink past. One has a shorter one, the other two have a longer one.
Freund in particular knows Rangnick very well, as he was essentially his right-hand man at Red Bull Salzburg from 2012 to 2015. “He thinks bigger, he thinks differently than the normal mainstream,” the Austrian once described the qualities of the German, whose “consistency and persistence” were impressive.
Rangnick as a sponsor of Nagelsmann & Co.
Because Rangnick thought and acted differently than so many others during his career, he served as an inspiration and supporter for numerous other coaches who now coach top teams themselves. Marco Rose, once at Red Bull Salzburg, now at RB Leipzig, is someone who is often called Rangnick’s pupil, or of course Julian Nagelsmann, who would rather stay as national coach than return to FC Bayern.
“He is someone who extremely encourages and challenges young people,” said Nagelsmann before the international match between Germany and Austria in November, when teacher Rangnick’s team won 2-0 against Nagelsmann’s former student’s team.
Rangnick can create an identity
Whether Nagelsmann or Rose – all of them have learned to appreciate Rangnick’s unambiguousness. “It takes a clear club philosophy,” he once lectured. “If there is no football identity, you as a club don’t stand for anything.” Who am I? What defines me? Rangnick, who is not known for understatement, can provide answers – and even get an entire club involved. If you let him.
Can FC Bayern’s “Mia san mia” be reconciled with Rangnick’s uncompromising attitude and claim to competence? Or are two cultures colliding? “The biggest motivator for people is not money,” Rangnick once told Red Bulletin magazine, “but having a boss, coach or professor who makes you better. Then the players or employees will always follow you.” How does that sound, FC Bayern?
dpa
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