Julian Nagelsmann's best moments at RB Leipzig
By Mitch Wilks
Not all managers are cool, but Julian Nagelsmann is cool. Really cool.
Partly because he's young and trendy, but also because he is so tactically tuned for his young age and has continually demonstrated an ability to hang with football's biggest names so early into his career.
No football fan grows up as a child dreaming about being a coach, and that's understandable. But watching Nagelsmann debut in the Bundesliga as a head coach at just 28 and lead Hoffenheim to the Champions League - all while wearing swanky outfits on the touchline - is helping to change that rhetoric.
Since then, his heroics with RB Leipzig over a two season period have put him at the top of the shortlist for just about every top club in search for a new manager. Bayern Munich have won the race, however, and Nagelsmann will join Die Roten to replace Hansi Flick ahead of the 2021/22 season.
90min looks back at some of his best moments with RB Leipzig.
1. Getting the job
Despite not being the biggest name in world football, RB Leipzig had stirred up the shape of European football enough in 2019 for them to feel like a significant project.
The club choosing to put their faith in Nagelsmann - then aged 30 - was a risky decision with other options available, but one that paid off. For Nagelsmann, being trusted with the reins at such an esteemed football set-up was huge and immediately flagged him up as football's next big thing.
2. A strong Bundesliga debut (2019)
Ignoring pre-season friendlies, it's always vital to get off to a strong start when the actual season rolls around.
Away from home, Nagelsmann's side ensured the best start possible by recording a 4-0 victory over Union Berlin. By no means the strongest competition they would face, but still an important fixture where emotions run high in the desire to kick off a new era properly.
3. RB Leipzig 8-0 Mainz (2019)
After a strong start to the Bundesliga season that had only seen Leipzig lose twice before a four game winless run in the league, Nagelsmann's side bounced back in November 2019 when they put eight past Mainz.
Timo Werner bagged a hat-trick of goals and assists as Die Roten Bullen ran riot, straight off the back of a 6-1 win against Wolfsburg in the DFB-Pokal just days before.
The result stands as a club-record victory margin for Leipzig and will take a monumental effort to be improved on.
4. RB Leipzig 4-0 Tottenham (2020)
In his first season at the helm, Nagelsmann eased past Jose Mourinho's Tottenham in the last 16 of the Champions League with a 4-0 aggregate score over two legs.
Not only was it monumental in outclassing a manager with pedigree like Mourinho, but it also made Nagelsmann the youngest coach to win a game in the knockout stages of the competition, further breaking the mould in elite football management.
5. Making European history
If completely outplaying a Mourinho team in a European knockout stage wasn't enough, Nagelsmann took Die Roten Bullen even further in the 2019/20 season as they reached the semi finals of the Champions League.
An 11-year-old club making the last four of the Champions League is a big enough achievement in itself, but Nagelsmann added another layer to the achievement by becoming the youngest coach to reach that stage.
Going that far into the competition is no joke and is the sign of a top manager.
6. The apprentice beats the master
Nagelsmann has long been dubbed a 'baby Mourinho' but it was under Thomas Tuchel where he took his first steps into football coaching.
Tuchel used Nagelsmann as a scout at Augsburg II in 2008 and having been beaten by his former boss in the 2020 Champions League semi final, he managed to get revenge in 2020/21.
Leipzig beat Tuchel's Paris Saint-Germain in November 2020 during the Champions League group stages in a 2-1 victory, which ultimately proved key along with a win against Manchester United in ensuring they progressed to the knockout stages.
