RB Leipzig's Rene Maric’s modern coaching journey

At the tender age of 26, Austrian coach Rene Maric has proved to many that you do not have to enter football through conventional ways. 

Maric is one of Europe’s most progressive coaches and, earlier this month, signed a contract extension that will ensure he remains one of Marco Rose’s assistants at Red Bull Salzburg until 2021.

Maric’s tale has attracted interest then it is because this is a very modern story with few obvious parallels. Maric started off coaching in his home village, Handenberg – 30 miles north of Salzburg – after being forced to give up playing in his mid-teens, but opportunities to exchange football philosophies were limited in a settlement of 1,000 inhabitants. There was more luck online, where like-minded souls could be found in coaching forums and chatrooms. 

“It was just five guys who wanted to talk about football and did it together,” Maric told 'The Guardian' about his blog. 

“I think people have got the impression it was more about journalism, or commenting on people in football, but that was never the goal.

 

September 15, 2018

"For me it was about thinking of something, throwing it out there and just finding people who’d comment. In my village it’s hard to get regular feedback on things; on the internet you throw it out and can have 5,000 readers and 200 comments.”