On 19 May 2009 a club with no past but very big plans was founded in Leipzig. RB Leipzig turns 18 years old on 19 May 2027, and in that time it has climbed from the fifth tier to the Champions League semi-finals. It is one of the fastest rises in the history of German football.

A club born with a licence

Behind the founding was the company Red Bull, which already had teams in Austria and the United States. Instead of starting from scratch, the new club took over the playing rights of SSV Markranstädt in the Oberliga, the fifth tier, together with its first team and its coaches.

According to English Wikipedia, all seven founding members were employees or associates of Red Bull. The goal was clear: the Bundesliga within eight years.

What RasenBallsport means

German rules do not allow advertising names for clubs. So the team was named RasenBallsport Leipzig, which means something like "lawn ball sports". The initials RB, of course, remind everyone of the owner.

Its nickname is "the Red Bulls" (Die Roten Bullen). Its colours are red and white, the traditional colours of every Red Bull team.

The badge that would not pass

In its first year the team played without a badge. The Saxony Football Association rejected the first designs because they looked too much like the Red Bull logo, and approved a modified version in May 2010.

In 2014, to get a licence for the 2. Bundesliga, the club had to change its badge again so that it stood apart more clearly from the corporate logo. Even Leipzig's badge, in other words, has a little story of its own.

From adidas to Nike and Puma

The first shirts were made by adidas. Then came Nike, which dressed the team for about ten years until June 2024, and since July 2024 the supplier has been Puma.

One special shirt was made for the club's 10th birthday in 2019. It was all red, and inside the digits of the number 10 on the back were printed the names of every player who had worn the first-team shirt since 2009.

Semi-finals, cups and stars

The first season was played at the small Stadion am Bad in Markranstädt. From 2010 the team moved to the old Zentralstadion, a 2006 World Cup venue, which was renamed Red Bull Arena. The promotions came one after another, and on 8 May 2016 Leipzig sealed promotion to the Bundesliga.

In its first season there it finished second, behind only Bayern. In 2020, with Julian Nagelsmann as coach, it reached the Champions League semi-finals, where it was knocked out by Paris Saint-Germain. Two German Cups in a row followed, in 2022 on penalties against Freiburg and in 2023 with a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Timo Werner became the top scorer in the club's history and scored 28 goals in the 2019/20 season. Yussuf Poulsen, Emil Forsberg, Naby Keïta, Dayot Upamecano and Christopher Nkunku also played for Leipzig, while captain Dominik Kaiser scored the team's first Bundesliga goal.

Celebrate with us

Eighteen years is not much for a football club, but Leipzig has filled them with promotions, European nights and trophies. Few teams can say they went from the fifth tier to a European semi-final in eleven years.

Happy birthday, Leipzig! May the Red Bulls keep charging with the same drive.

See our RB Leipzig jerseys at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Red Bull Arena during RB Leipzig v Bayer Leverkusen – Markus Unger, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.5.