The new man on the Manchester United touchline is a very interesting character.
Ralf Rangnick was signed by United a couple of weeks ago to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
until the end of the current season.
Ralf, like we said, is a very interesting character, and you will be seeing that in
this video today.
Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about the new Manchester United interim boss:
1.
He suffered effects of World War II
Hearing World War II, you may begin to wonder how old the United boss is.
Well, he is 63 years old, and was born the following decade after the second World War
was over.
His parents, however, met during the war in a refugee camp in Lichtenstein.
And then went on to have only one child, him.
The war had long term effects on his parents and, therefore, his childhood.
His mother was sick, and most times, he had to stay home and take care of her while his
dad went to work.
The illness went on for a long time.
She also was psychologically affected by the war and it taught Ralf to be very caring and
empathetic, a trait that can be seen throughout his managerial career.
2.
He played football in England and had a horrible experience
Ralf’s playing career started in Germany in the 70s.
But he later moved to the UK to study in the University of Sussex, and then started playing
football there.
He played for Southwick, but his footballing career in England was very short-lived.
In just his third game in England, Rangnick sustained very serious injuries that sidelined
him for months.
He broke 3 ribs and punctured his lungs while playing against Eastbourne Town.
After that very short spell in England which didn’t end well for him, he went back to
Germany where he finished his playing career.
In fact, 3 years after that very horrible injury in England, Ralf started his managerial
career in Germany.
It seems like he found out early enough that playing the sport wasn’t for him.
So, he went into managing pretty early.
At 25, he was hired as a player-manager by VfB Stuttgart.
3.
He invented Gegenpressing
You see how Liverpool play and also how Dortmund played under Jurgen Klopp, it was this man,
Rangnick, who invented that tactic.
He has a rule that when his players lose the ball, they have 8 seconds to get it back.
And that is why you see teams that gegenpress always have insane workrate.
He wants his players to always work and dominate games.
Till today, Ralf Rangnick is referred to as the Godfather of Gegenpress.
And in fact, the man who perhaps popularized the tactic, Jurgen Klopp, has publicly credited
the United boss for the inspiration.
And truth be told, because of this alone, Rangnick’s influence on modern football
can never be overstated.
4.
He is the coach of coaches
Rangnick may not have won the biggest of trophies in Europe, but his influence in European football
is unmatched.
He is one of those people that may never be the biggest star themselves, but they are
the ones the biggest stars look up to.
Surely, when it comes to achievements and trophies won, Rangnick is not as successful
as say Klopp or Tuchel.
But these 2 managers, among others, have drawn huge inspiration from Ralf.
Tuchel himself was managed by Ralf at Ulm 1846 in Germany.
While he and Klopp have known each other for more than 2 decades now.
He even worked as the Liverpool manager’s unofficial agent when he was about to take
his first managerial job.
Many more modern football managers have said they draw inspiration from Ralf, including
Ralph Hasenhuttl, Roger Schmidt, and Bayern’s Julian Nagelsmann.
He is indeed the managers’ manager.
5.
He has suffered from extreme burnout syndrome
During his second spell as manager at Schalke 04, Ralf suffered extreme burnout syndrome
otherwise known as chronic fatigue syndrome.
He left the club only 6 months after rejoining because of this.
He went on a managerial hiatus for 4 years and did not take any coaching job during that
period.
He, however, took up a role as sports director at RB Salzburg 10 months into his hiatus.
He made his return to managing with RB Leipzig in 2015.
Unfortunately for him, his past haunted him at Leipzig.
When things were not going really well, the fans put up a poster which had the words “Ey,
Ralf, we’re eagerly awaiting your next burnout.”
Not a very cool way to support your manager now, is that?
Well, it is possible that this is one of the reasons United decided to start him out with
a 6 month contract?
Hm!
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6.
He divorced his childhood sweetheart
In 2017, Ralf and his wife, Gabriele split up.
And it was really painful for the United boss because he had known Gabriele for 42 years
and they were together for 40 years before the divorce.
They even have 2 kids together, David and Kevin, who are now grown.
Anyway, Ralf himself said the split was amicable.
He said “Gaby and I have known each other for 42 years.
Each of us deserves a chance at a new life and a new partner.”
The divorce must have really hurt Ralf, but from the look of things, he has long moved
on from it.
He is as cheerful as ever in public and still his normal playful self at press conferences.
7.
He once got injured avoiding beer
Rangnick does not have a very good history with injuries.
And it would appear that the injuries would not let him catch a break even when he left
playing for coaching.
After Ralf won promotion to Bundesliga for RB Leipzig in 2016, he was seen on the pitch
celebrating with the obviously elated players.
And as is the custom in Germany, players celebrate with beer baths.
And Davie Selke, one of the Leipzig players, was so determined to bathe his manager with
a huge glass of beer.
But Ralf didn’t want that.
So, he ran to avoid the bath.
The Godfather of Gegenpress was being pressed by his own student.
He ran and ran until he eventually pulled a hamstring.
And was then still eventually bathed with beer.
Maybe he should just not have tried to avoid it in the first place.
When Selke was asked about the incident some minutes later, he jokingly replied that he
was too scared to go back to the dressing room to face Ralf, and that was why he was
having so many interviews.
But he didn’t end the interview without taking a jab at his coach.
He said Ralf trying to run from him wasn’t a good idea.
And that the manager probably picked up the injury because he didn’t warm up enough.
8.
He has a unique punishment tactic
If you break any of his rules, Rangnick will not just hand out fines or give you extra
drills, he gets creative with his punishment.
According to him, fines rarely do anything to the players.
He believes that they learn better when they are more involved.
When he was in charge at Leipzig, he created a wheel of misfortune which he used to punish
players who erred.
Players who break the rules spin the wheel and whatever punishment it stops on is what
they will have to do.
There were 12 options, some of which were training an academy team for 4 hours, pumping
up balls, filling water bottles, and even cutting grass.
But there’s one option on the wheel that the players always hoped to get and that was
“ Get Lucky”.
If your wheel stopped on that option, you were literally lucky.
You get to escape punishment.
It will be interesting to see if Ralf introduces this at Manchester United.
Imagine having Cristiano Ronaldo cut grass and pump up balls.
Is that something we will ever get to see?
Anyway, credits for the idea should go to Rangnick’s assistant when he was at Leipzig,
Jesse Marsch.
Jesse, who is an American, drew inspiration from a famous US TV game show “wheel of
fortune”.
Jesse took over managing Leipzig in April after Nagelsmann left for Bayern Munich.
But he just got sacked by the club in early December.
9.
His nickname is The Professor
Ralf Rangnick is often called The Professor by fans and colleagues.
And this is for so many reasons.
First is that he actually studied sports education at Stuttgart University.
Secondly, he is basically a researcher and an innovator.
Like we mentioned earlier in this video, he invented a tactic which is now widely used
in Europe.
And to huge success, we must add.
More so, he was one of the first ever football managers to publicize tactics.
This was way back in 1998 in a TV broadcast.
Funny thing is that the title “the professor” was first used to mock him.
But it has since transformed to be a name of adulation and respect.
10.
He was so close to featuring on Playboy magazine
Even if you have never read a Playboy magazine, you are surely familiar with the type of content
that they print.
And surely, it is nowhere close to football or even sports.
Anyway, in 2018, Rangnick was very nearly published in an issue of Playboy Germany.
Ralf sat for the interview, and he later admitted that he should have got up 30 minutes into
it and told himself he didn’t need to do an interview like that with Playboy.
According to him, that interview went way off topic.
Well, till today we do not know what exactly the interview was about, and Ralf has his
agent to thank for that.
Ralf’s agent cut the interview extensively; so much that Playboy decided to not print
an authorized article for the first time ever.
Wow.
What could the Manchester United boss have said that his agent insisted that the world
could not see the interview?
Hm!
What do you think?
Let us know in the comments.
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