RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig, founded in 2009 and based at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig with a capacity of 47,800, have won 2 DFB-Pokals (2022 and 2023), reached the 2020 Champions League semi-final, and finished as Bundesliga runners-up four times since 2017.

Leipzig’s rise from the fifth division to regular Champions League participants in fifteen years is the most compressed ascent in German football history. It was funded by Red Bull, structured to avoid the DFB’s 50+1 ownership rule through a membership structure that critics argued violated the spirit if not the letter of the regulation, and built through the Red Bull football network that also runs Salzburg, New York Red Bulls, and other clubs. The sporting relationship between Leipzig and Salzburg, which allows player movement within the network, has raised recurring competitive integrity questions.

The 2020 Champions League semi-final run, when the club defeated Atlético Madrid in a single-leg quarter-final in Lisbon only to lose 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain, demonstrated that the model could produce European-level competition within a decade of the club’s founding. Timo Werner’s directness and Dayot Upamecano’s defensive quality were the pillars of that run before both moved to the Premier League.

Marco Rose manages a squad with sufficient Champions League depth to compete in the group stage and knockout rounds while simultaneously challenging for the Bundesliga top four. Xavi Simons’s arrival on loan from Paris Saint-Germain and Benjamin Šeško’s physical centre-forward play have given the attack a combination that other clubs have found difficult to contain.

When does RB Leipzig play? Bundesliga matches at the Red Bull Arena are typically 15:30 or 18:30 CET (UTC+1) on Saturdays. Leipzig is in Saxony, eastern Germany, formerly in the GDR. A 15:30 CET Saturday kickoff means 14:30 GMT in London, 09:30 ET in New York. Check Leipzig time for live conversions. See the Bundesliga schedule.