Champions League: Salzburg as a springboard in the elite
The active players with a red-white-red past are also: Dominik Szoboszlai, Amadou Haidara, Kevin Kampl, Peter Gulacsi and the ÖFB team pillars Konrad Laimer and Xaver Schlager at RB Leipzig. Borussia Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi, the injured Jerome Onguene of Eintracht Frankfurt, as well as Sadio Mane, Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer are also involved with German clubs in the Champions League.
With Peter Ankersen, who played 21 games for Salzburg as a right-back from 2014 to 2016, a player from FC Copenhagen also surprisingly appears in this list. Naby Keita, who has been with the Reds in Liverpool since 2018, is currently out of the English squad for the Champions League group stage due to a hamstring injury.
Haaland outshines everyone
All are currently outshined by Haaland. The 22-year-old Norwegian has scored 22 times in his first 15 competitive games for the English champions, making headlines week in and week out and breaking records incessantly. That was already the case in Salzburg times.
In the “bulls” dress, he scored six goals in his first three games in the premier class. So far, no other player in the most important European Cup competition has managed to do that. Haaland was only in Salzburg for a year, but got off to a flying start in 2019. In 2020 he will go to Borussia Dortmund before taking the next step in his career two and a half years later.
The young stars mature in Salzburg
In Salzburg, the talented ones mature into team pillars and then switch to a club at the next higher level before the best ones go one step higher. This has become a financially extremely successful model for Salzburg.
Mane “escaped” to Southampton for €23m in 2014. Naby Keita (2016/29.8), Upamecano (2017/18.5) and Haidara (2018/19.0), who all went to RB Leipzig, brought good money into the club coffers. Haidara is still active in Leipzig, Mane and Upamecano are now playing for Bayern Munich, where Sabitzer is also under contract.
Talent promotion pays off
Salzburg was also able to achieve a big plus in the years after the Haaland transfer. In 2021 Patson Daka (Leicester City/30.0), Enock Mwepu (Brighton/23.0), who surprisingly had to end his career a few days ago due to heart problems, and Szoboszlai (Leipzig/22.0).
In 2022 it was Karim Adeyemi (Dortmund/30.0) and Brenden Aaronson (Leeds United/32.8). In the summer of 2023, Benjamin Sesko will be next, whose transfer to Leipzig of 24 million euros has already been fixed.
Not only the players are in demand
Not only the players are in demand on the international transfer market. With the ability to develop young players, the coaches are always on display. In the Champions League, Marco Rose is fighting for promotion with Leipzig and Roger Schmidt with Benfica Lisbon.
In addition, Eintracht Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner was an assistant coach for the “bulls” in the past. Salzburg almost lost one of the fathers of the great transfer successes in Christoph Freund. However, the Salzburg sports director did not respond to the lure of the English top club Chelsea.