RB Leipzig will sell Upamecano and Sabitzer for right price, says CEO

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

RB Leipzig CEO Oliver Mintzlaff has confirmed that the Bundesliga side will sell in-demand talents like Dayot Upamecano and Marcel Sabitzer if the right offer comes in for them. 

If persistent reports are to be believed, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United are all long-term admirers of defender Upamecano. 

And club captain Sabitzer is also apparently top of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur’s shopping list in this transfer window or the next. 

There’s little reason to believe RB Leipzig would be willing to sell either talents in January, but the club have made a habit of cashing in on their best players at the best opportunity. 

In 2020, the club sold Timo Werner to Chelsea for £48 million, while Naby Keita left the club to join Liverpool for £54 million in 2018. 

And while Mintzlaff has no intentions of selling Upamecano or Sabitzer, he openly admits every player at RB Leipzig has his price and if it’s met they won’t stand in their way. 

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“We have a squad that is also very broad in terms of quality,” Mintzlaff told German newspaper SportBild. 

“So we will also sell top performers again if it makes financial sense and we can absorb it from a sporting point of view. 

“When I think of Werner, Cunha, Keïta or Demme, we’ve already made a lot of money and still made progress in terms of sport. 

“Overall, we have invested a lot in our team, no question about that. But look: the current squad had a market value of less than 250 million when the individual players made their debut. 

“And if we now take the current market value, we are at around 550 million. You have to take this plus of over 300 million into account when you talk about investments. We are creating value with our path.”