Berlin (AFP)

The adventure is unparalleled! Leipzig, founded in 2009, went in a decade from the fifth German division to the last four of the Champions League, by the will of Red Bull and its billionaire boss, the Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz.

- The vertiginous ascent -

2009: Red Bull, the Austrian energy drink brand, looks to gain a foothold in football, after its successes in extreme sports and Formula 1. Rather than buying a big club, Mateschitz decides to take over the license of a 5th division club, and to provide it with a budget to progress: the RB Leipzig is born.

In an East German football in need of sponsors, the transplant takes. In seven years, the RB climbed from regional football to national, went professional, remained two years in the second division, and tumbled into the elite in 2016. Its principles: to rely on its high-performance training center, and not to engage only players under 25. Among them, a certain Timo Werner, 20, comes from Stuttgart. He will become a star in a few months.

- The challenge to Bayern -

The ambition is clearly displayed: to establish itself in a few years at the top of German football, where Bayern and Dortmund rule the roost.

The newcomer is initially badly received. The leaders of several German clubs accuse Red Bull of fabricating a soulless marketing product from scratch, just to promote its brand.

But the RB, with its team of almost unknowns, shakes up the old Bundesliga. To general amazement, the promoted took the top spot in November, after 11 days. And guard for three weeks! In the end, the club finished runner-up behind Munich and qualified for the Champions League in its first season in the top flight. Werner ends the year with 21 goals.

"We now have in addition to Dortmund a second enemy," said Uli Hoeness, then president of Bayern.

- Hatred of ultras -

The debut in the Bundesliga went less well off the field. The ultra "traditionalists" of the big clubs do not accept the intrusion of Red Bull.

Several incidents in the stands punctuate the season, when insulting or threatening banners are deployed against the "red bulls" or their sponsor.

In November, Dortmund fans physically attacked visitors from Leipzig after a game, injuring ten.

- Anchoring at the top -

The first C1 campaign ends in the group stage, and the team has difficulty digesting the rhythm of the two matches per week: Leipzig finished 6th in the championship.

But the next two seasons (2018-2020) saw the newcomer settle down for good at the top, with two third places, each time behind Bayern and Dortmund. In 2019, the young team even offered a German Cup final, lost 3-0 against Bayern for the last of the duo Robben-Ribéry.

"Bayern will remain the yardstick in Germany, but we will try to close the gap with them and with Dortmund in the next few years," promises then-RB sporting director Ralf Rangnick.

"I don't particularly like their business model," grumbles Borussia Dortmund boss Hans-Joachim Watzke, "but sportingly, they do things really well." RB, he admits, has become "the third force in football in Germany (...) and we will have to be terribly wary of that in the years to come".

- Nagelsmann for Europe -

The leaders had programmed the next big development step for this 2019-2020 season: the recruitment of the young, brilliant and above all ambitious coach Julian Nagelsmann, 33, was to take the club to a new level.

“In terms of salaries and transfers, Leipzig cannot fight against Bayern, they are on another planet,” Nagelsmann said on arrival, “but with a hungry team, we can compete for titles”.

After third place in the Bundesliga, Tuesday's accession to the Champions League semi-final against PSG turned the first attempt into a master stroke.

A final - against Munich? -, if it were to materialize, would undoubtedly exceed all of Dietrich Mateschitz's wildest dreams!

© 2020 AFP