By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Marketing and image seem to be everything in professional football. It looks like no other German club is more aware of how to create a brand out of nothing.
Young, innovative, different, well-structured and ambitious, RB Leipzig has recently shown its qualities when it comes to shaping a football club's corporate identity.
Qualifying for the Champions League after only one year in the German Bundesliga was a first remarkable achievement. Now, while the side from the country's east is currently trying to book a place in the Euro League group stage after its second year, Rasenballsport has again proved, it is an unusual club, knowing how to be a vital part of football's headlines.
Not only that, the most wanted young German coach Julian Nagelsmann recently signed a contract joining RB from 2019. And more: The 31-year-old has rejected an offer from Real Madrid and instead decided to join Leipzig.
Apparently, that is reason enough to be proud.
"Fact is, he had several offers, but he decided to join us. That was not because he earns more than others would have paid. We didn't offer the highest salary, but it was our club that convinced him," commented Leipzig chairman Oliver Mintzlaff.
"We are still a young side, but we seem to have charisma and stand for a wide range of positive attributes. Julian was attracted by that," Mintzlaff emphasized.
Believe it or not, Nagelsmann seems to address Leipzig's needs. The former amateur player used an exit clause (valid for 2019) to leave Hoffenheim that gave him the opportunity to work in the first division. In February 2016, at the age of 28, the Bavarian gave his debut as a coach in the top division and was the youngest coach in the Bundesliga's history.
While both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were interested but couldn't wait until 2019, Leipzig could, after sports director Ralf Rangnick agreed to do both jobs for a year to keep the seat warm for Nagelsmann.
The current Hoffenheim coach confirmed that he had received an offer from Real before the Spanish giant decided to sign Julian Lopetegui causing turbulences in Spain. The former national coach was sacked by the national association shortly before the 2018 World Cup after his decision to leave after the World Cup and succeed Champions League winning coach Zinedine Zidane.
51-year-old Lopetegui did what 31-year-old Nagelsmann said "was too early" for him. "I am 31. If my career develops more or less normally there might be the opportunity to coach a club of the level of Real someday," he commented.
He admitted to having thought about the offer, as "you don't hang up when Real is calling." But the offer didn't come at the right time.
"What would come after my age after coaching a side like Real?" Nagelsmann asked.
He said he wanted to grow logically. To always achieve the maximum is "the biggest problem of our society. What counts is to be showier than the neighbors, to own the bigger car, to have the bigger bank account and the bigger house. I don't want to be part of that game," Nagelsmann stressed.
Nagelsmann mentioned thinking about an early career retire shortly after turning 40 and changing jobs. The mountain and nature-lover spoke about being a guide and moving into a mountain region.
For now, he is embarking on his last year in Hoffenheim and negotiating the club's first ever Champions League campaign. Next summer Nagelsmann will take over Leipzig until 2023. He then will be 36 and assumedly old enough for a famous side like Real Madrid.
After all, Nagelsmann admitted having said no to Real this time is nothing cast in stone. Next time he could well be heading for the Spanish giant.
