THE RISE AND RISE OF JULIAN NAGELSMANN

Wanted by Real and just a schoolkid when Ole scored THAT goal in 1999... now Leipzig boss can deliver Champions League blow to United

ALL eyes will be on the Red Bull Arena on Tuesday night – and Champions League elimination for Manchester United would surely push RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann one step closer to the exit door himself.

The 33-year-old German coach has already rejected at least one overture from Real Madrid.

But his achievements, first with Hoffenheim and now Leipzig, mean he’s unlikely to remain stuck in the Bundesliga for too much longer.

Knocking Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United out could even boost his chances of replacing the Norwegian at Old Trafford, with the club already reported to be keeping tabs on a man redefining the art of management.

Nagelsmann took on Hoffenheim as Bundesliga strugglers – and he transformed them into a side that made it to the group stage of the Champions League back in 2018-19.

Then, in his first season in charge of Leipzig, he took that club to the semi-finals of the competition, beating Tottenham in the round of 16 and Atletico Madrid in the last eight.

Not bad going for a man whose own playing career ended in injury at the age of just 20.

He was handed a break in coaching, via a scouting job, by Thomas Tuchel – now at the helm of Paris Saint-Germain, but then just the manager of Augsburg’s second team.

The thought of competing in the Champions League must have been a remote one then for a man who at 33 is younger than both Cristiano Ronaldo (above) and Lionel Messi.

When Solskjaer helped United pull off their famous Champions League heist against Bayern Munich at the Nou Camp in 1999, Nagelsmann was still in his first year at secondary school.

Now he’s busy providing an education in coaching for a team that not too long ago was playing amateur football in Germany.

“Leipzig still aren’t particularly

GOALDEN: Ole’s 1999 Nou Camp winner well- liked because German fans think they have bought their way to success,” said Tony Woodcock, the former England striker who played in the Bundesliga for FC Koln.

“You could say they have, in some ways – but you still have to do things right to achieve what they have in recent seasons. You can throw money at it but it’s no guarantee that you’ll be successful.

“They’re also playing some very, very good football. Their rise has been very well planned. Nagelsmann is very highly rated and he is going from strength to strength.

“When I was playing in Germany they weren’t even the best club in Leipzig – so to see them playing the likes of Manchester United now is incredible.”

Having achieved so much at such an early age, Nagelsmann’s route to the top has hardly been a traditional one, but then his methods aren’t typical either. At Hoffenheim he had erected a 6x3 metre video wall and four cameras next to the club’s training pitch – allowing him to film coaching sessions, then stop and rewind the action so he could make his points to the players.

With this kind of passion for detail and innovation, it’s little wonder that Nagelsmann has caught the eye of Europe’s biggest clubs.

It’s a measure of his wide-ranging dedication to self-improvement that even before the Hoffenheim job, he began to train horses.

With the Champions League group stage entering its final furlong, Solskjaer will hope his United side don’t fall at the last hurdle.

is Nagelsmann younger than both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi