RB Leipzig are different. Yet it isn’t the unique ferocity of their high-pressing style, their vibrant young coach Julian Nagelsmann’s tactical ingenuity or a supremely engaged fan base which separates Leipzig from most of their Bundesliga rivals; it’s the way the rest of German football perceives Die Roten Bullen’s mere existence which inspires such disparate reactions.
In May 2009, the energy drink manufacturer Red Bull completed the long-held wish of co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz to invest in a German football club. Having settled on Leipzig – a football-mad city of 600,000 people in the former East Germany with a ready-made 43,000-seater stadium – as the base for their team, Red Bull bought the licence of fifth-tier SSV Markranstadt, a village just outside the city limits.