RB Leipzig chairman Oliver Mintzlaff has publicly denied rumors that some of the German side’s top players are set to leave the club on transfer deals.
It has ben an interesting year for Leipzig. The team played their first Bundesliga season and eighth in total. They attracted the scorn of many football fans for their corporate ownership and relatively young history. For a while there, they gave Bayern Munich a run for their money in the league. And they ended the season in second place, ahead of teams like Borussia Dortmund and Hoffenheim.
RB Leipzig will play in the Champions League in only their second season in the top flight of the German league. And Leipzig doesn’t look to be going anywhere soon. The club has at their disposal a decent budget provided by their corporate owners. However, they have made their youth system the team’s priority. The squad’s average age is of 23 years old. And now the big European clubs have come calling for their top talent.
Naby Keita, Timo Werner and Emil Forsberg are three of the players on the radars of football’s elite. Rumors are rife that Liverpool is getting ready to make a bid for the 22-year-old Keita. The club’s manager says that the team is planning for the future. Mintzlaff is quoted as having told The Times that the team’s starting players are not for sale.
“We have decided that we will not sell any player from our starting line-up.[Sporting director] Ralf Rangnick told this to our team at the end of the season. We will keep our team together and keep on developing.”
Keeping their young players is also in line with the club’s transfer policy. For now the club has been able to bring in players showing a lot of prospect and showcase them in their team. When asked earlier this week about the rumored transfer of Bayern’s Joshua Kimmich, club officials told reporters that the player is outside of their price range.
With a transfer budget considerably smaller than their German rivals, Leipzig are doing well to promote their young stars and to insist on keeping them. And now, with the possibility of showcasing their talents on the Champions League stage, things could change soon enough for the club.
