RB Leipzig have appointed Martín Demichelis as head coach on a two-year contract running to June 2028, the club confirmed on Monday. The 45-year-old former Bayern Munich defender succeeds Ole Werner, dismissed after a single season in which Leipzig finished third in the Bundesliga and secured a Champions League place but ended the campaign with a string of heavy defeats. German reports indicate the move was driven by Jürgen Klopp, Leipzig’s head of global soccer, who had lost faith in Werner’s ability to compete at the highest level and identified Demichelis as his preferred candidate.

Demichelis arrives from RCD Mallorca, where he took over in March with the club in relegation danger. Spanish accounts note that despite a 2-1 victory over Real Madrid and an eight-match unbeaten run, Mallorca were relegated on head-to-head tiebreakers. The Argentine’s coaching pedigree, however, was forged earlier at River Plate, where he won the 2023 Argentine league title playing a high-intensity, front-foot style that German media say closely matches Klopp’s vision for Leipzig. His playing career included four Bundesliga titles with Bayern, a Premier League crown at Manchester City, and a World Cup final appearance in 2014.

Leipzig’s hierarchy, viewed from within the Bundesliga, saw the end-of-season slump as evidence that a fresh tactical impulse was needed. The club’s managing director for sport, Marcel Schäfer, pointed to Demichelis’s international experience across Europe, South America and North America as an “excellent fit” for a club with global ambitions. Asian media relayed Demichelis’s own words: “I want to create a side that plays bold, intense and exciting football, takes responsibility on the pitch and inspires the people of Leipzig with its passion.”

The new coach steps into a squad already qualified for next season’s Champions League, a stage he described as “exactly where a club with the ambition and quality of RB Leipzig should be.” His immediate task will be to impose a coherent identity on a team that, for all its league position, ended the domestic campaign with defensive fragility. The first test comes when Leipzig begin their European campaign in the autumn, with Demichelis expected to implement the aggressive pressing and rapid transitions that defined his River Plate side.