Jesse Marsch Announced as New RB Leipzig Head Coach

RB Leipzig of the German Bundesliga have officially announced that former USMNT international Jesse Marsch will succeed Julian Nagelsmann for the head coaching role, starting in the 2021/22 season.

Marsch, 47, currently manages RB Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga, where he’s been since June 2019. Salzburg currently sit in first place. Marsch will be replacing the current manager for RB Leipzig, Julian Nagelsmann, who is leaving at the end of the season to take over Bayern Munich. Leipzig currently sit in 2nd place and if they can hold that spot for the remaining 3 matches of the season, the club will participate in the UEFA Champion’s League. Marsch was already the first American to coach a club in a Champion’s League match with Salzburg, and the first American manager to win a major title in Europe. He will now be the first to coach a German club in the competition, and only the second American to coach in the German top flight after Pellegrino Matarazzo came up with Stuttgart in 2020 following the club’s promotion from the 2.Bundesliga.

Marsch had a 13-year long career in MLS before hanging up his boots and switching to coaching, playing most prominently for the Chicago Fire and the now-defunct Chivas USA. While he only received 2 caps with the national team, Marsch quickly became an assistant with the international side under Bob Bradley, before making his coaching debut with the Montreal Impact, now CF Montréal, ahead of their inaugural MLS season in 2012. However, the move didn’t quite work out and Marsch left the club at the end of the season. He wound up as something of an unheralded coaching move for the New York Redbulls in 2015, taking over and implementing what has become the quintessential Red Bull — and Marsch — style of aggressive pressing. He quickly shaped NYRB into one of the most distinct and successful clubs in the league, winning the Supporter’s Shield in 2015 and reaching the finals of the US Open Cup in 2017. Marsch moved to Leipzig to become an assistant in 2018, in the middle of what would turn out to be another Supporter’s Shield winning season for the New York Side. After serving as an assistant for a year, Marsch took over the head coaching role at Salzburg where he has since received wide appraise.

Jesse has been part of the Red Bull football group for over six years now and has done incredible work in all his roles so far, constantly developing step-by-step. It’s of course a great advantage that he already worked for a year at RB Leipzig. Jesse knows the club, the city of Leipzig and, above all, the club and playing philosophy. Alongside his qualities as a coach, Jesse is characterised above all by his positively ambitious style, which he uses to motivate and engage the people and around the club.
– Oliver Mintzlaff, CEO RB Leipzig

This move to Leipzig represents a big move for Marsch and a major success for the Red Bull sporting group, the private Austrian group that owns all three of NYRB, RB Salzburg, and RB Leipzig. Stepping from MLS to any top division European club was always going to be a big task, never mind a Champion’s League club. But Salzburg are by far the most dominant side in the Austrian league, massively dwarfing the other clubs. Leipzig represents a far steeper challenge, with a much higher level of quality in the league from top to bottom, particularly with the seemingly indomitable Bayern Munich looming. Still, not everything will be new and strange for Marsch. Leipzig are also with the RB group and operate under familiar systems, ranging from the style of play to the organizational hierarchy. And Marsch will be reuniting with American international Tyler Adams, who he coached back when both were with NYRB.

How do you guys feel about Marsch’s move to RB Leipzig? How well do you think he’s going to do? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.