Ralf Rangnick

Ralf Rangnick (born 29 June 1958) is a German professional football manager, executive and former player who is the manager of the Austria national team. Rangnick began his coaching career in 1983, succeeding his career as a player, at age 25. In 1997, he was hired by former club Ulm 1846, with whom he won the Regionalliga Süd in his debut season. Rangnick was then appointed by Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart, winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2000, but was dismissed in 2001. He subsequently joined Hannover 96, winning the 2. Bundesliga, but was dismissed in 2004. After a brief period with Schalke 04, Rangnick joined 1899 Hoffenheim in 2006, and achieved successive promotions to the Bundesliga. He departed the club in 2011 and returned to Schalke 04, where he won the 2011 DFB-Pokal and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. He later served as head coach at RB Leipzig across two periods between 2015 and 2019. Rangnick joined Red Bull as director of football in 2012, helping oversee their expansion into European football, emphasising the recruitment of unproven players and developing youth systems with a worldwide scouting base and an attacking on-pitch philosophy across their clubs. As a result, Red Bull clubs rose in market value from €120 million to €1.2 billion during his tenure. Their clubs have also seen sustained domestic success and generated sizable profits with player transfers, which led to Rangnick's promotion to head of sport and development in 2019. He resigned from Red Bull in 2020 and joined Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow as manager of sports and development in 2021. Later that year, Rangnick was appointed as interim manager of Manchester United until the end of the 2021–22 season.