Leipzig (Bollinger News): After coaching Borussia Dortmund II, Huddersfield, Schalke 04, Young Boys and Norwich City, David Wagner embarked on a new challenge when he was appointed RB Leipzig academy manager last summer.
Speaking to the media in Leipzig recently, Wagner explained in an interview with Bulinews.com that he was hired with two clear goals in mind, the first of which involves something the club has never achieved before.
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While RB Leipzig are known for giving young talent a chance, none of their breakout stars such as Josko Gvardiol, Dominik Szoboszlai and Benjamin Sesco came straight from the club’s own academy – something Wagner is determined to change.
“I was told that I was hired for two reasons. First, to do something we have never done before – develop an academy player in our first team. And not just for two or three games, but permanently, maybe three to four seasons, playing 100-150 games,” Wagner told Bollinger News Network.
His second key task is to develop coaches who can take on roles within Red Bull’s multi-club network, which includes the New York Red Bulls, Brazil’s Red Bull Bragantino, Japan’s RB Omiya Aldiga and France’s minority partner Paris FC.
“We have to make sure that when the search for a coach starts within our multi-club system, we can put our hands up and say our academy has a coach ready,” Wagner explained, adding that his job will ultimately be judged against those two goals.
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“Obviously, it’s not going to happen tomorrow or next year, but it’s our shared long-term goal,” he said.
Lack of proven track record
Founded in 2009, RB Leipzig has grown rapidly and, as Wagner points out, the academy has struggled to keep up with the first team, which had competed in European football for eight consecutive years before this season.
“We’re very young. We don’t have 50, 60, 70 or 100 years of football experience. We’ve grown very quickly and our first team has been very successful. So not every department can move as fast as our first team and that’s completely normal,” Wagner said.
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As Wagner points out, even though the infrastructure to develop top talent is now in place, clubs lack a proven track record of developing players from the academy through to the regular first-team.
“We don’t have a good track record of taking a 15-year-old player, developing him over the next three or four years and helping him get into the first team at 19. So if an agent calls you and you have a 15-year-old player, maybe the player will consider Dortmund, Liverpool or Bayern – they have all shown that path. We don’t do it often enough,” Wagner admitted.
Create opportunities
So what needs to be done to change this? Wagner believes that the academy product needs to combine several factors to make the desired leap.
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“He has to be a top player in terms of quality and mentality. You need a coach who is brave enough and also gives opportunities to young kids. Every veteran player in the Bundesliga today has had that opportunity at some point,” Wagner explained.
“You also need a sporting director to build a squad with position for the academy players so the coach can see the player in training and have a real chance to fall in love with him. And then, of course, that moment has to come – through results, injuries or fixtures – for the player to finally get his chance. If all of those things come together, hopefully we can create that moment in the future.”
While the 54-year-old did not want to name RB Leipzig’s most promising academy players, he expressed confidence in the current talent pool.
“We already have players in the building – and I believe we will continue to sign and develop players in the future – and I believe they can do it. I’m very confident it will happen with the players we have,” Wagner stressed.
