Haaland, Keita and stars developed by Christoph Freund at Red Bull Salzburg
Karan Tejwani
- 16 Sept 2022 11:35 BST
- 4 min read
Red Bull Salzburg Sporting Director Christoph Freund has been linked with a move to Chelsea, as the Blues are looking to alter their sporting strategy.
Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel last week and replaced him with Graham Potter in what was a statement of intent from new co-owner Todd Boehly, following a big summer of spending.
The Blues were the biggest spenders of the summer, and spent the most of any club in a single transfer window ever, signing nine players in total.
Most of the transfer business was conducted by Boehly, though, and he wants someone with experience to take over the Sporting Director role, with Freund seemingly the preferred target.
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Freund has great track record
Freund has a great track record with Salzburg: the Austrian club are renowned for developing world class talent and the Sporting Director has overseen all of it since 2015.
The most high-profile transfer in that time has been that of Erling Haaland, who moved from Salzburg to Borussia Dortmund, and has since gone on to become one of the world’s best forwards.
He is now setting records in England with Manchester City, having scored 12 goals for the club already and is on course to breaking the single-season scoring record for the club in the Premier League.
Naby Keita is another high-profile talent that was sold under Freund’s watch, having made a name for himself at Salzburg: he moved to RB Leipzig, and is now at Liverpool.
Christoph Freund: “You should never rule anything out in football, Chelsea are such a huge club”. 🔵 #CFC
“We spoke a lot, they wanted Sesko. New owners are interested in how we do things with young players, but it’s normal to have these conversations”, tells @SkySportAustria. pic.twitter.com/zHVpjnfcNz— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 15, 2022
RB Leipzig have benefitted aplenty from their cousins in Austria, having seen talents like Dominik Szoboszlai, Dayot Upamecano, Konrad Laimer, Hwang Hee-chan and, as of next year, Benjamin Sesko move to Germany.
A few Premier League clubs have also benefitted: the Zambian duo of Patson Daka and Enock Mwepu moved to Leicester City and Brighton in the summer of 2021 – the former was in free-scoring form for Salzburg.
This year, it was Brenden Aaronson who made the move, having seen him reunite with former Salzburg manager Jesse Marsch over at Leeds United as they went through an American revolution.
Karim Adeyemi also made a huge name for himself in Austria before moving to his home country in Germany this year, making the move to Borussia Dortmund.
Others such as Jonathan Soriano, Peter Gulasci, Martin Hinteregger, Xaver Schlager and Duje Caleta-Car have also come through the Salzburg way and found a way to other clubs under Freund’s watch.
It’s clear to see why Boehly and Chelsea are so impressed by Freund: his talent identification is top notch and he has an excellent record of developing players fit for Europe’s top leagues.
