RB Leipzig have turned to Martín Demichelis to fix a club in genuine crisis — no European football next season, an estimated €113m revenue hole, and a squad full of players the market is already circling. Replacing the sacked Ole Werner with the man who just got Real Mallorca relegated from La Liga is a gamble that's already dividing opinion in Leipzig.
The Argentine has been appointed on a two-year contract, with a €2.5m release clause paid to the Spanish island club according to Bild. Managing director Marcel Schaefer backed the call: "Martin is a great manager, he brings a high level of competence with a system which combines intense football and a clear line on the type of play he wants to play." Whether that holds up against Bundesliga opposition is a different question.
The financial pressure is real
Missing out on European football in 2025/26 isn't just a sporting disappointment — it's an structural financial problem. Transfermarkt estimates the shortfall at a minimum of €113m when you factor in UEFA distributions, matchday revenue, hospitality, and media income. That number alone explains why Leipzig finished eighth and Werner got the sack anyway. The club needs to sell.
The names most likely to leave are significant ones. Yan Diomandé has attracted a reported €86m offer from Liverpool, with Real Madrid and PSG also watching. Costello Lukeba — a cornerstone of a defence that conceded just 40 goals last season — is on Barcelona's radar as Hansi Flick hunts a replacement for Christensen. David Raum, valued around €30m, is reportedly interesting Bournemouth, potentially with Marco Rose involved in a move to the South Coast. Lose all three and Leipzig aren't just rebuilding — they're starting over.
That's the environment Demichelis is walking into. His playing CV is legitimate: four Bundesliga titles with Bayern, a 2014 World Cup final appearance, a Premier League title with Manchester City under Pellegrini. As a manager, he led River Plate to a treble in 2022/23 before the Mallorca job ended in relegation. The 56% win rate across his career looks reasonable until you notice the sample sizes vary wildly in quality.
Klopp in the background, critics at the gate
Jürgen Klopp, in his role as Red Bull's Global Head of Soccer, is widely expected to have influenced the appointment. That adds credibility, or at least cover, to a decision that's struggled for it elsewhere. Guido Schäfer of the Leipziger Volkszeitung put it bluntly: "Demichelis cannot be worse than Werner, but he will not have time to prove himself."
That's a damning framing. Werner, for all the criticism, took Leipzig from relegation candidates to back-to-back top-nine finishes. Axing him after one eighth-place season — with a squad that cost €503m to assemble, the second-highest value in the Bundesliga — suggests the club's leadership wanted a reset in style as much as results.
Demichelis is a German speaker, starts pre-season training on 13 July at Red Bull Arena, and faces FC Ingolstadt in a home friendly on 25 July. Pre-season trips and tune-up games will follow before the real work begins. Leipzig's title odds aren't worth discussing right now — the more pressing question is whether they can qualify for Europe at all.
- Pre-season opener: FC Ingolstadt (home), 25 July, 14:00 CEST
- Second friendly: SC Verl, 1 August, 12:00 CEST (RB Leipzig Football Academy)
- Training camp: Saalfelden, Austria — 1–7 August
"I want to create a side that plays bold, intense and exciting football," Demichelis said. In Leipzig right now, with the squad potentially being stripped for parts, he'll need to do it with less than he's inherited.
