DFB meeting with Mintzlaff: Klopp's move to become national team coach takes shape

However, according to Sky information, it is unlikely that Red Bull will officially continue to use Klopp as a brand ambassador. Instead, the company plans to consult Klopp "now and then" on an advisory basis. Klopp himself is also reportedly no longer willing to appear as a brand ambassador. A permanent dual role as national team coach and Red Bull figurehead had previously met with massive resistance from fan alliances and the DFB's regional associations.

Mintzlaff's role at Red Bull

Meanwhile, Mintzlaff is fueling the discussion with a remarkable personnel matter. The Viennese newspaper "Der Standard" wrote that Mintzlaff is "a hard-nosed character." Mintzlaff himself had said: "Being described as a hard-nosed character is not always a distinction." The 50-year-old runs Red Bull's business and is responsible for all of the company's sporting activities – from two Formula 1 teams to football clubs in the USA, Japan and Brazil, as well as two ice hockey clubs and a cycling team.

The designated national team coach Klopp is 59 years old and was celebrated as a "game changer" for the company's international football when he was signed by Red Bull in early 2025. At the time, Mintzlaff had said: "We hope to gain valuable and decisive impetus in the key areas to make the clubs better overall and individually." The "Salzburger Nachrichten," however, retrospectively summed up Klopp's tenure as "practically completely unsuccessful on the pitch"; Mintzlaff had also described Klopp's signing around 18 months ago as "certainly the strongest signing in Red Bull's football history."

Mintzlaff had played a key role in driving Klopp's signing at the company. As early as a first meeting in 2012, he impressed Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who has since passed away. In Formula 1, Mintzlaff was responsible last year, following internal power struggles, for the departure of team principal Christian Horner, who had led the team since its F1 entry in 2005. Red Bull's roster includes four-time world champion Max Verstappen and US ski racer Lindsey Vonn.

Connections to the DFB

The name Mintzlaff is also no stranger at the DFB. After Germany's World Cup exit in Qatar in 2022, he was a member of a DFB task force that was supposed to push reforms forward under then-national team coach Hansi Flick. Less than a year later, Mintzlaff resigned from the body together with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge – the stated reason was the appointment of Andreas Rettig as DFB sporting director. Rettig, a well-known critic of the Red Bull football model, is leaving the association at the end of the year when his contract expires.

One compensation model under discussion envisages hosting more national team matches at the Leipzig Red Bull Arena. RB Leipzig recently parted ways with head coach Ole Werner following a convincing Bundesliga season. Eintracht Frankfurt's sporting director Markus Krösche is being talked about as a possible successor at Red Bull's headquarters in Fuschl am See, Austria. When awarding sponsorship and athlete contracts, the company in Germany counts on, among others, decathlon world champion Leo Neugebauer and Tour de France starter Florian Lipowitz.

Negotiations over Klopp's future

The mood at the DFB remains tense in the meantime. Schleswig-Holstein association president Uwe Döring sharply criticized the planned dual role: "As a football fan and member of FC St. Pauli, I have never understood Klopp's engagement with Red Bull – it can't really be about the money anymore. But maybe I'm wrong there; this whole madness around coaches' salaries and severance packages, which are also paid out even when there's no performance, just disgusts me." According to the available reports, a transfer fee for Klopp is not at the center of the negotiations.

Reactions from the associations

Background

Negotiations over Klopp's future

Reactions from the associations