RB Salzburg is considered a great talent factory. National player Karim Adeyemi is the next young professional who is about to jump – he will probably go to Dortmund.

Bayern’s CEO Oliver Kahn speaks with great respect of a “highly talented team”. Munich’s Honorary President Uli Hoeneß honors “the excellent work” of RB Salzburg. Austria’s serial champions have long since earned an excellent reputation as a highly regarded talent factory in European football. Whether stars like Erling Haaland, Dayot Upamecano, Sadio Mané, Naby Keita, Dominik Szoboszlai or Patson Daka – they all went through the Salzburg School before it caused a stir internationally.

Salzburg is known throughout Europe as a talent factory

And the next highly talented RB young star is about to jump: German national player Karim Adeyemi will most likely leave the club in the summer – and probably end up at Borussia Dortmund like Haaland. A fee of up to 40 million euros is under discussion for the 20-year-old and lightning-fast attacker, who has aroused the interest of several top clubs.

“The players take the next step after one, two or three years, the next ones are just waiting in the wings. We develop superstars, superstars go to Bayern,” said RB sports director Christoph Freund before the round of 16 first leg in the Champions League on Wednesday (9 p.m. / DAZN) against Bayern Munich on ServusTV.

Business model: Training and selling young talent

It is the business model of the Salzburg company: they get promising talent from all over Europe, train them and then sell them on, sometimes at a high profit. The German coach Matthias Jaissle recently reacted to Adeyemi’s alleged departure with a relaxed attitude. It is “just our way that the players can take the next career step when they have developed well”.

It was “impressive” what happened in Salzburg, stressed Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann on Tuesday. Freund has a “very good eye for talent”. There are currently 16 A national players in the squad, the average age is just 22.5 years. The transfer plus in this season alone is 48.35 million euros.

Champions League Round of 16: Bayern vs. Salzburg

It is a path to success that Salzburg has been treading for years. The club managed by a Brause group has also been an important springboard for many coaches, such as Roger Schmidt, Marco Rose, Jesse Marsch or Adi Hütter. Jaissle is also expected in the Bundesliga in the medium term.

In Austria, the twelve-time champion (last eight times in a row) is unchallenged – and now RB has also established itself internationally. Having narrowly failed in the group stage last year, Salzburg have now qualified for the round of 16 of the Champions League for the first time. Gone are the days when the club was the laughing stock in Europe after being eliminated from qualifying against F91 Dudelingen from Luxembourg in 2012.

The fact that FC Bayern is now also the opponent caused huge euphoria at RB. There is talk of the biggest game in club history. “There’s nothing bigger for Salzburg than playing against FC Bayern. It’s going to be a real football spectacle,” said Freund. But you will “certainly not”, he added briskly, “freeze in awe”. (sid)