Both sides have a track record of identifying and signing promising young talent, perhaps underappreciated across the wider market, before selling at a considerable profit; Salzburg in particular have sold several of their burgeoning young stars to the Bundesliga outfit based in East Germany.
How Red Bull’s investment in Leeds measures up to their hands-on role in Leipzig and Salzburg is, however, lesser by a considerable extent. The company do not have a say in key decisions regarding player signings and the general day-to-day running of the club despite their minority shareholding position. Those responsibilities remain under the remit of chairman Marathe, his 49ers Enterprises management structure and existing Leeds board.
That said, the 49ers chief has admitted in an interview with The Athletic that Leeds will seek to utilise their strategic partnership with the Red Bull empire to enhance their recruitment this summer.
“If there’s an opportunity somewhere, or we identify a talent that might benefit us, we’ll go do that,” Marathe said.
“The other benefit of this is that, as minority investors in the club, they’re another set of eyes and ears — pretty darn keen and expert eyes and ears, in seeing other players in other leagues.
“There’s things we can learn which we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to learn.”
Red Bull Salzburg have in the past been able to lure little-known Erling Haaland from Norwegian club Molde and Sadio Mane from French club FC Metz, both at the beginning of their careers, whilst bankrolling RB Leipzig to within touching distance of a first German league title, admittedly attracting strongly dissenting voices from football supporters across the country.
The Red Bull scouting network has produced hit after hit and Leeds now have a back-door into their recruitment mainframe, which will theoretically increase the number of players the club’s scouting department can watch, read trusted appraisals on and gain access to.
Naturally, given Red Bull’s influence on the other clubs they own a chunk of and the fact all but one – due to German advertising rules – bear their name, this access to a recruitment treasure trove may ultimately come at a cost. But, for the time being, Marathe has reassured devout Leeds disciples that 105 years of history is not about to be canned or sold off.
