NAGELSMANN UNCOVERED
Skateboarding, skiing and paragliding are just part of the thrill-packed life of the coach ready to kill off Spurs. Meet Julian Nagelsmann, the...
THERE is an electric skateboard by Julian nagelsmann’s feet, underneath his desk. Why? surely he doesn’t whizz about RB leipzig’s training ground on it?
‘No, no, but sometimes I go home on the skateboard,’ he tells
Sportsmail. ‘I live only seven kilometres away. It’s very fast. I’m good at skating because I snowboard and that is similar. It’s easy.’
At 32, nagelsmann is the youngest manager to win a Champions league knockout match, but ducking and weaving through german traffic on his mini-wheels is something else.
Unsurprisingly, the Bart simpson impersonation has not gone unnoticed. ‘all the fans who see me ride through the city are laughing. They can’t believe the manager of leipzig is skateboarding! They like it. They never say, “He’s crazy”. They recognise that you are living a normal life.’
Nagelsmann’s is one of the most intriguing stories in Europe and elite clubs are monitoring his progress. Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham face a tough task to stay in the Champions league here on Tuesday, having lost the first leg 1-0, and leipzig could end Bayern Munich’s eight- year reign as Bundesliga champions.
All this started at augsburg and it is a tale of triumph over adversity. nagelsmann, a centre back, suffered a career- ending knee injury aged 20 and his father Erwin died suddenly later that year. Coming to terms with both, he took responsibility for running the family: the house, the car, the lot.
Augsburg II coach Thomas Tuchel offered him scouting work and from there it snowballed: a coaching role in 1860 Munich’s academy; switching to Hoffenheim and, via the Under 19 job, becoming their manager at 28. success at Hoffenheim was instant and he took them from a Bundesliga relegation battle to the Champions league in a year.
Real Madrid called just before leipzig landed their man on a pre-contract agreement in 2018. But it was too soon.
‘I said no to Real but it’s important to say I didn’t have a contract ( offer),’ he says. ‘ They wanted a meeting. I would have had two weeks to prepare, to learn spanish. I have a lot of time. I don’t have just five years to earn all the money. I have 10 or 20 years to earn that. If you’re a manager at 50 then you don’t say no to Real. now I can decide what is right.
‘Here, I have a chance to make mistakes and learn from them; to become a better manager. You don’t have that at the biggest clubs. If you don’t win, they won’t talk about why. They’ll fire you.’
THAT Leipzig didn’t come away from Tottenham with more than a one-goal advantage is a source of regret for a man once dubbed ‘Mini-Mourinho’ by ex-germany goalkeeper Tim Wiese.
‘We were all nervous before Tottenham,’ says nagelsmann. ‘But it was important to bring our way of playing. I didn’t expect we’d have such a high percentage of the ball. I thought Tottenham would be more offensive. I told my players how proud I was to do it in such a great stadium.’
Nagelsmann speaks passionately in near-flawless English about the need to trust the instincts of his attacking players. ‘always be an entertainer,’ he says. ‘I have rules in offence but it’s all about players finding the right spaces and solutions in the right moments.
‘We have to entertain the supporters. It’s not only about defending and “don’t concede”. Perhaps most managers focus on defence. Mourinho and I have similarities in our careers. We didn’t play professionally but our way of playing is not the same.’
Nagelsmann knows it is not all about tactics anyway.
‘Management is 30 per cent tactics and 70 per cent dealing with the personalities,’ he says. His man-management has long been lauded and his attitude towards fines is an example.
‘Better than paying money is to spend their time with people who are unwell. They will learn more if they have to go to a hospital with children who are ill and recognise their job and lives are beautiful. They have a lot of money.
‘Being young can help (as a manager). You speak the same language as the players. You know Instagram, Facebook. It’s a bit easier to have fun if you’re nearly the samee age. You knoww what the playersers laugh about. They need to have that feeling that he is a cool, funny guyguy. I can make my jokes.’
THERE is a six- metre tower between the pitches at leipzig’s training complex. Known for his innovation, nagelsmann will clamber up to study matches from on high.
He has erected a giant video wall to replay incidents, a trick he first used at Hoffenheim. ‘all the players can stay in their positions rather than moving to a smaller screen,’ he says. ‘ Then you can repeat straightaway; they don’t have to walk back.’
Nagelsmann admits reaching out to his peers is now more difficult. It was easy when he was a rookie at Hoffenheim, but Jurgen Klopp and Pep guardiola are two exceptions. ‘It’s still easy to get in touch with Pep but it isn’t like it’s every week,’ he says. ‘It is once in three months. some things, like the offensive way of playing the wing defenders, we talked about. The other times it is just congratulations for three points. It’s more talking like friends. nobody wants to talk in detail about their philosophy. It’s not surprising. I don’t want to!
‘Pep and Jurgen tell me that the Premier league is crazy, a hard one. In the future it is very interesting for me. It’s normal for a yoyoung guy in the BuBundesliga that therthere is a club in EnglaEngland interested in you butbu I don’t focus on that.that I haveh a contract for four years with no exit clause. some day there could be a club who phones me. The big Premier league clubs will call me if I win a title in germany.’
Nagelsmann is not just into skateboarding and snowboarding. He skis, paraglides and goes mountain-biking. He is training to become a pilot and takes a trail motorbike for the odd spin in leipzig’s nearby peaks.
‘No mobile, no Whatsapp, no meetings,’ he says. ‘It’s a beautiful landscape. I feel free. You can breathe deeply. You feel smaller. These help me avoid bad days. You can’t just have football, football, football. If you love other things, it will always be a pleasure to be on the pitch.’
Whatever his future holds, it will revolve around his wife Verena and son Maximillian, five. and snow. nagelsmann wants to become a mountain guide in the alps. no, really.
‘Maybe a manager for another 10-12 years and be at a good age, not to retire and lie in bed all day. It’s the plan, but you can’t plan a career. I want to win titles and if I don’t in the next 10 years then I will carry on. If there is a chance to stop after 12 years and do other things, to live in the alps, then I would be very happy. It would be perfect.’