Jesse Marsch has completed the hat trick. He is moving on to his third Red Bull club.
The former New York Red Bulls head coach has spent the 2018-19 season as an assistant at RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga, and now he is heading to the Austrian Bundesliga to manage Red Bull Salzburg on a three-year contract.
[ MORE: Latest USMNT news ]
Marsch, 45, will take charge of Salzburg from next season and the former U.S. men’s national team and MLS stalwart will have one of the best jobs an American coach has ever had in world soccer.
“I am really pleased and feel honored to be able to work for this fantastic club as their next coach. I will give everything to further continue the extremely successful work here,” Marsch said. “That is going to be a new challenge for me, and I can’t wait for it. I still have a lot to do with RB Leipzig until then to finish the season in the best possible way. I am concentrating completely on that before my new role at FC Red Bull Salzburg starts.”
Sporting Director Christoph Freund added that Salzburg have “followed Marsch’s career and development very closely in recent years” and that they are “completely convinced of him both as a professional and as a person. He knows our philosophy and way of playing football very well.”
There is no doubt that Marsch has landed a very decent job, and the way he transformed the fortunes of the New York Red Bulls in MLS (a Supporters’ Shield and Coach of the Year award in 2015 the highlight) shows he deserves it. His work to develop young players has been particularly impressive, and Salzburg have a record of improving and selling on plenty of talented youngsters such as Sadio Mane and Kevin Kampl. Salzburg’s link with Leipzig is a close one, and if Marsch excels in Austria, there is a strong possibility he could head back to Germany to take charge of Leipzig in the future.
As for Salzburg, they reached the semifinals of the UEFA Europa League last season and the last 16 this season, while they are currently top of the table in Austria and if they win the title they will be in the UEFA Champions League playoff round next season.
Many believed Marsch should have been a leading candidate for the USMNT head coaching job during its recent vacancy, but it always seemed like he was more focused on making waves in club management in Europe.
With this job at Salzburg, he certainly has the chance to do that.