Ralf Rangnick is prepping his Austrian national team for what will be an extremely difficult opening group stage match against France at EURO 2024 in Düsseldorf, but life was close to looking very different for the former Bundesliga manager by now. Rangnick was incredibly close to accepting an offer from Bayern Munich to be the next manager, replacing the outbound Thomas Tuchel, but he ultimately decided against if after the offer was put on the table and Bayern thought he was going to accept it.
Ultimately, Rangnick explained that he did not want to make too drastic or too much of a life-changing decision at this current juncture, especially just ahead of the Euros with Austria. Some reports last month also claimed he was not exactly thrilled that Bayern was first pursuing Julian Nagelsmann, Hansi Flick, and Xabi Alonso ahead of him, feeling that he was a “plan c” for Bayern, but he rationalized that has nothing to do with why he made the decision to stay with Austria.
“It was one of the most difficult professional decisions I had to make so far in my career. There are four former players of mine in the squad and four employees with whom I have worked before. That made the whole thing special, and at one of the biggest clubs in Europe. It doesn’t happen very often that you get such an offer. That’s why I considered it very seriously. And I would like to emphasize again that it was not a decision against FC Bayern,” Rangnick recently explained to kicker (via @iMiaSanMia).
Contractually, Rangnick is set to stay on as Austrian national team manager through June 2026, but that would not have been the case if he would have accepted the Bayern job. Looking at things full circle, Rangnick did not want to be in a place where he would not be able to see through all of the work he has done with the Austrian national team, helping them qualify for the Euros. “The idea of being a coach of both Austria and Bayern for two and a half months was the main reason. If I had agreed on May 1st, I wouldn’t have been FC Bayern coach from July 15th, but from May 1st. And then it became clear to me that this couldn’t be done without something suffering as a result. We invested two years here in Austria to get to where we are now. I didn’t want to jeopardize that,” he explained.
Managers often move clubs and/or national teams throughout their career, and it is entirely justifiable. Rangnick is no exception to that notion with all of the different managerial and front office tenures he has had.. He knows the Austrian players would have been professional and understanding of his decision to take the Bayern job, but he did not want any of them to feel that he had lost any focus in the task at hand for the EUROs. “m sure every one of my players would have understood if I had done it. But I still think it would have affected the team in terms of energy and atmosphere. Players always notice very clearly whether their coach is still focused and in balance – or whether he’s distracted and no longer as focused,” he said.
Looking for some thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s pursuit of João Palhinha, how he might fit in the squad, and what the roster fallout might look like? Then check out our latest Bavarian Podcast Works Show, where we also hit on why Sky Sport’s report on six big player sales might not be so far offbase and why the German national team did not give fans a ton of confidence after the friendlies against Ukraine and Greece. You can get the podcast on Spotify or below: