Columnist and market man for Tuttomercatoweb.com, he is a speaker and radio commentator for Radio Sportiva. Indiscretions for Rai Sport
Talking about the Red Bull universe and Italy is a complex practice. Because it is necessary to thoroughly analyze the philosophy of the drinks club’s football project, the territories where it worked (and where it didn’t), the risks that the Austrian group was able to take in relation to the pressure and the locations chosen. In this we must also take into account the stringent laws of Italian football on non-EU citizens, a brake that would block most of the operations that RB is more free to carry out in Austria and Germany. The company which has a turnover of 10.5 billion a year is one of the leaders in sport on a global level but football is a particular beast to handle and Italy is a delicate, complicated terrain. Let’s start from this background to ask ourselves a question, to which we will try to give answers. Can Urbano Cairo’s Toro Torino become a Red Bull?
Extreme scouting and Italian regulations
The insights begin when Ralf Rangnick picks up Naby Keita from Istres and Sadio Mané from Metz. The former were very skilled at fishing it from the ‘primary source’, the latter even growing it in the Generation Foot. So Red Bull begins scouting in two unbeaten territories such as Zambia and Mali, on two interesting football clubs and schools, in Yeelen and Bamako. At JMG Bamako, for example, they signed Diadie Samassekou and Amadou Haidara, a club that has produced talents such as Cheick Doucouré and Yves Bissouma. The strategy is even broader: Liefering, a club also from the drinks galaxy in the second Austrian series, as the first step for the first contract, to learn the basics of tactical philosophy and then in Salzburg, then who knows. Another country, even less beaten in the market latitudes, is Zambia. At Kafue Celtic, in 2017, during the COSAFA Cup, the Austrians signed Enock Mwepu, a midfielder considered ready for the Premier League, and Patson Daka, who then took over Erling Haaland’s legacy. Gym after gym, some of these then fly to Leipzig. all players who couldn’t arrive at Torino due to Italian regulations on non-EU citizens (the square would willingly accept using one or two slots, the only ones available, for eighteen-year-olds from Zambia)?
Salzburg’s record transfers
Would an Italian fan base accept seeing its best players leave every year? In Austria, as mentioned, Salzburg has a budget that is more than triple that of the others and in Leipzig it is the third in the Bundesliga. To be third in Serie A, it would have to significantly exceed investments in the Bundesliga but would it really be worth it to Red Bull? To give an example of what the fans of an Italian club would have to ‘endure’, here are the 15 most profitable Salzburg transfers.
36 million – Dominik Szoboszlai, RB Leipzig
33 million – Brenden Aaronson, Leeds
30 million – Karim Adeyemi, Borussia Dortmund
30 million – Naby Keita, RB Leipzig
30 million – Patson Daka, Leicester
24 million – Benjamin Sesko, RB Leipzig
23 million – Sadio Mané, Southampton
23 million – Enock Mwepu, Brighton
20 million – Nicolas Seiwald, RB Leipzig
20 million – Erling Haaland, Borussia Dortmund
19 million – Amadou Haidara, RB Leipzig
19 million – Duje Caleta-Car, O.Marseille
18 million – Dayot Upamecano, RB Leipzig
18 million – Strahinja Pavlovic, Milan
17 million – Munas Dabbur, Seville
Haaland’s example
The best center forward in the world, today, at the age of eighteen, plays for Molde. 20 goals in 50 appearances in two seasons, crazy average but physique still to be structured and style still raw compared to the player he is today. Salzburg takes him and sporting director Christoph Freund says “we got one of the best young players in Europe, and he chose us over many other important clubs in Europe”. In the same summer, he also signed a very young sixteen-year-old Karim Adeyemi from Unterhaching, Jerome Onguene from Stuttgart and Antoine Bernede from PSG, in addition to cross deals with the teams of the Red Bull universe which would also bring Enock Mwepu from Liefering to the most important Austrian team. Borussia Dortmund then pays the 20 million clause but Red Bull had invested 8 million euros to get him from Molde, an important sum given their belief in their ideas. Things went extraordinarily well with him, Juventus didn’t buy him because “he would have played in the Under 23s”, as his agent, Mino Raiola, said at the time. Real. And in a club with renewed European ambitions, would a twenty-year-old taken from Norway immediately play as a starter (excluding Haaland, because they aren’t born every month…)?
Pros and cons
If we talk specifically, the words of Urbano Cairo, president of Torino, do not open the door wide but open up for the first time to a transfer of the club. At the end of a cycle. “I don’t want to stay at Torino for life and it’s going to change hands at a certain point. But I would like that when I decide to sell there was someone richer than me, so I’ll step aside. There’s no doubt about this , I don’t want to stay at all costs. When someone who is richer and better arrives, I’ll step aside. I don’t want to stay at Toro at all costs, the 20-year-olds run out,” said Cairo. From here it takes a long time to define a negotiation with the energy drink giant, to explain that it’s done and over. The Bull-Bull syllogism seems all too logical, but that’s not all there is to it. Turin and Turin are more than attractive places but certainly not low cost, legitimately. And there would not only be drinkers but also US and Arab funds who would have asked for information. But apart from this, we continue to analyze the possible landing of the Red Bull model in Italy. Would it work? It’s difficult to give a positive answer. Because it requires assumptions that do not exist in our latitudes. Patience, accepting losing bets, extreme risks. And then there are some nooses, such as the regulations on non-EU citizens, which would certainly limit the philosophy of the RB project. Clear: it also has enormous positive aspects, on the club coffers, on the satisfaction of arriving at players who then become absolute stars of international football. But even in this case, be careful, none of these (or almost none) took root because the Red Bull clubs were then springboards to take flight and win, elsewhere. Below we leave you the Top 20 deals in the history of the Austrian giant’s project according to TMW. Stuff to rub your eyes, yes. But could it really work in Italy?
1) Erling Haaland from Molde to Salzburg (8 million euros)
2) Dominik Szoboszlai from Videoton to Salzburg (500 thousand euros)
3) Benjamin Sesko from Domzale to Salzburg (2.5 million)
4) Sadio Mané from Metz to Salzburg (4 million)
5) Josko Gvardiol from Dinamo Zagreb to Leipzig (36.8 million)
6) Dayot Upamecano from Valenciennes to Salzburg (2.2 million euros)
7) Timo Werner from Stuttgart to Leipzig (14 million euros)
8) Naby Keita from Istres to Salzburg (1.5 million euros))
9) Joshua Kimmich from Stuttgart to Leipzig (500 thousand euros)
10) Christopher Nkunku from PSG to Leipzig (19.5 million euros)
11) Marcel Sabitzer from Rapid Vienna to Leipzig (2 million euros)
12) Lukas Klostermann from Bochum to Leipzig (1 million euros)
13) Yussuf Poulsen from Lyngby to Leipzig (1.5 million euros)
14) Peter Gulacsi from Liverpool to Salzburg (free)
15) Takumi Minamino from Cerezo Ozaka to Salzburg (800 thousand euros)
16) Stefan Lainer from SV Ried to Salzburg (200 thousand euros)
17) Amadou Haidara from Bamako to Liefering (800 thousand euros)
18) Karim Adeyemi from Unterachting to Salzburg (3.3 million)
19) Lazar Samardzic from Herta Berlin to Leipzig (500 thousand euros)
20) Ibrahima Konate from Sochaux to Leipzig (free)