The young coach is set to take over the reins at the Allianz Arena from 1st July onwards, which cost the Bavarians €25m as compensation.
Bayern Munich have signed RB Leipzig manager Julian Nagelsmann on a five-year contract at the end of this season. Bayern’s search for a new manager began when current boss Hansi Flick decided to resign at the end of the season after an outstanding year and a half with the club.
The 33-year-old has been rated as Europe’s best young manager and guided RB Leipzig to a Champions League semi-final last season. In February 2016, aged 28, Nagelsmann took over Hoffenheim and became the youngest head coach in Bundesliga history.
He guided the minnows into top-four contestants in two years and, after joining Leipzig in 2019, led the East German team to a third-place finish in the league and the semi-finals of the Champions League in his debut campaign. Leipzig have once again dominated the Bundesliga this season and were on the title race till the first week of April before Bayern took control with a 1-0 victory win against them.
“I will leave RB Leipzig with a heavy heart. It’s still too early to say goodbye and otherwise talk about memories, because I’m not finished here in Leipzig. My mission will end in the summer, but until then it will continue at full throttle. We have grown into a sworn bunch that finally want a title,”
said Nagelsmann.
Meanwhile, Hansi Flick, the current Bayern manager, expressed his desire to leave at the end of the season and has been heavily linked with the Germany national team post. The 56-year-old joined his former club as the assistant manager to Niko Kovac. But four months later, the Croat was given the boot. Flick was handed the post in November 2019. Under his leadership, Bayern would win the sextuple – the first German team to achieve the feat and are almost a step closer to their 30th league title.
But everything hasn’t been rosy since the season started in September, with Flick reportedly becoming frustrated over the club’s lack of ambition in the transfer window. And by mid-season with Leipzig charging for the league title, the former Bayern midfielder was involved in a power struggle with sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic. Although Die Roten top the league by seven points over Nagelsmann’s RB Leipzig, they were eliminated by Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League quarter-final earlier this month.
“I would like to expressly thank Hansi Flick on behalf of FC Bayern. He took over our team in a difficult phase in 2019 and then won six titles, the seventh will hopefully follow soon. He will always have a place in the history books of FC Bayern. We wish him all the best for his future. Julian Nagelsmann stands for a new generation of trainers,”
Bayern president Herbert Hainer told the club’s official website.
Despite the spat sporting director Salihamidzic voiced his gratitude towards Flick and welcomed Nagelsmann saying,
“I would like to express my thanks to Hansi Flick. After he took over the position of head coach a good one-and-a-half years ago, we celebrated numerous victories and titles, the treble in 2020 was the highlight.
These successes will remain associated with his name. I wish him all the best on his future path.”
Nagelsmann was also rumoured to take the Tottenham job after this season, but in a twist of tales he has a certain chance to lift his first ever silverware much sooner than he had asked for.
