Jesse Marsch takes seat at Bundesliga coaching table, landing RB Leipzig job

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Apr 30, 2021

A game of musical chairs has been taking place in the German coaching ranks.

The latest move was made official on Thursday morning: Former Montreal Impact and New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch has landed the head coaching job at one of the biggest Bundesliga clubs, second-place RB Leipzig.

The German magazine kicker reported that Marsch had agreed to join Leipzig after turning down approaches from Eintracht Frankfurt and Tottenham.

In 2018, Marsch left the Red Bulls, where he been the head coach for three and a half seasons, and became the assistant at RB Leipzig. After one season, he became the head coach at Red Bull Salzburg, which he led to the Austrian league and cup double in 2020 and is on course to repeat that feat in 2021.

There was an opening at Leipzig because 33-year-old Julian Nagelsmann agreed to become Bayern Munich head coach next season and Leipzig accepted his buyout for what has been described as a world record coaching transfer fee of upwards of 30 million euros ($35 million).

There was an opening at Bayern because Hansi Flick asked to have his contract terminated on June 30, two years early. He is expected to succeed long-time head coach Joachim Loew in charge of the German national team after Euro 2000.

But there is more than one game of musical chairs going on in the Bundesliga.

It began when Swiss coach Lucien Favre was fired as Borussia Dortmund head coach in December and his assistant, Edin Terzic, was appointed to coach BVB only through the end of the 2020-21 season.

Marco Rose, whom Marsch replaced at Red Bull Salzburg in 2019, has agreed to join Borussia Dortmund as head coach next season, leaving Borussia Moenchengladbach. Two weeks ago, fourth-place Eintracht Frankfurt coach Adi Huetter used a release clause in his contract to get out of the last two years at Eintracht to move to Gladbach next season (which explains Eintracht's interest in Marsch).

Another coach on the move is expected to be Oliver Glasner, the boss at third-place Wolfsburg. And Glasner's replacement at Wolfsburg? Terzic, who led Dortmund to the UEFA Champions league quarterfinals and has the club back in contention for a top four spot in the Bundesliga, is the name most often mentioned.

The end result is that there will likely be turnover in the head coaching job at the top seven Bundesliga clubs from the start of the 2020-21 season to the start of the 2021-22 season.

German Bundesliga head coaches:
1. Bayern Munich (2020-21: Hansi Flick; 2021-22: Julian Nagelsmann)
2. RB Leipzig (2020-21: Julian Nagelsmann; 2021-22: Jesse Marsch)
3. Wolfsburg (2020-21: Oliver Glasner; 2021-22: ?)
4. Ein. Frankfurt (2020-21: Adi Huetter; 2021-22: ?)
5. Bor. Dortmund (2020-21: Lucien Favre/Edin Terzic; 2021-22: Marco Rose)
6. Bayer Leverkusen (2020-21: Peter Bosz/Hannes Wolf: 2021-22: Hannes Wolf)
7. Bor. M'Gladbach (2020-21: Marco Rose; 2021-22: Adi Huetter)