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Jesse Marsch ’96 hired to manage RB Leipzig

Jesse Marsch '96
FC RB Salzburg versus CSKA Sofia” by Werner100359 / CC BY 4.0

A former Princeton soccer player has been hired to manage one of the biggest football (soccer) clubs in Germany.

Jesse Marsch ’96, who currently manages the Austrian football club Red Bull Salzburg, will begin managing the sister club RB Leipzig at the start of the 2021–22 season. He will replace Julian Nagelsmann, who will be leaving the club to join European champions Bayern Munich. Marsch previously served as an assistant coach at the German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig.

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During his time at Princeton, Marsch was a star for the men’s soccer team, scoring 29 goals over the course of his career. During his senior year, he scored 16 goals and led the team to the first round of the NCAA tournament, which the Tigers lost 1–0 to James Madison. Marsch was also named as an All-Ivy selection in 1994 and 1995.

After a storied professional career, in which he became the first player to win the MLS Cup three times, Marsch began his coaching career in 2010 with the U.S. Men’s National Team, working under national team manager Bob Bradley ’80.

Marsch then managed two MLS clubs before being hired by Salzburg in 2019, becoming the first American to manage a team in the Champions League. During his first season as manager, the team won the Austrian Bundesliga and made the knockout stage of the UEFA Europa League. The team made the knockout stage again this year and currently sits atop the league standings.

Marsch faces even higher expectations in Germany. Under Nagelsmann’s stewardship, Leipzig reached the Champions League semifinals in 2020, and it is currently second in the German Bundesliga.

“Jesse has done an excellent job in all of his previous positions and has developed step by step. It's naturally a great advantage that he has already worked for RB Leipzig for a year. Jesse knows the club, the city of Leipzig and above all our club and game philosophy," club CEO Oliver Mintzlaff said in a press release.

The 47-year-old Marsch will begin his role with Leipzig this July.

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