Danny Rohl's Journey: From Rangers to Red Bull Salzburg

The mountains suit him.

From his office at Red Bull Salzburg’s training base in Taxham, the Berchtesgaden Alps tower over Danny Rohl as he talks through a year that has felt like three careers squeezed into one. Crisis firefighter at Sheffield Wednesday. Title-chaser at Rangers. Now the man charged with waking a fallen giant in Austria.

“Some people were asking why but I felt this is the right one now. I can confirm, it's a good move,” the 37-year-old says, calm and certain.

He has swapped the noise of Glasgow for the quiet edge of Salzburg’s suburbs, the chaos of Ibrox for a club that has somehow lost its grip on a league it once owned.

From Ibrox turmoil to Alpine reset

Rangers were a mess when he walked through the door. Sixth in the SPL, one win from eight, the season already drifting into anger and apathy. Rohl almost turned it into a redemption story.

He dragged them back into the title race, injected belief into a side that had forgotten how to breathe under pressure. For months, Rangers looked transformed. Then, just as the narrative threatened to flip entirely, the season buckled. Four defeats in their last five league games left them third.

The ending stung. So did the timing of what came next.

Rohl expected to stay. Rangers expected him to stay. His plans for the summer were already forming in his head. Then his phone rang while he was on holiday in June and the whole picture changed again.

“I was not prepared for this change in the summer,” he tells BBC Sport. “I was in Hawaii, the time difference was 12 hours and I was often on the main deck on the cruise around five or six in the morning. I had some calls and I thought about the situation.

“I have all these situations in my mind. I saw the beautiful sea, I saw the sun and then you think: ‘OK, what is the future?’”

The future, it turned out, was back in the Red Bull network.

“I spoke, of course, with Rangers. I was really transparent and open on how I feel, how I see it. On the other side, there was Red Bull Salzburg, especially Marcus [Mann, sporting director] – he really gave me the feeling of what we can do here.

“I said from the first day to both, if there's no agreement then we carry on, we move on because I have big respect to Rangers. It was also clear, our story was not finished.

“I saw a lot of opportunities, what we can do in the summer, what we should do but on the other side, I saw also a good opportunity to restart, to start from zero with a group of players with high quality.”

Rangers moved on to Derek McInnes, the manager who had taken Hearts to the brink of the title before losing out to Celtic on the final day. His start has been rough. After Thursday’s Europa League exit to Jagiellonia Bialystok, McInnes is still searching for his first win after four games.

Rohl, speaking before that defeat, knows the scale of the job his successor has inherited.

“Consistency, this is the most important thing. The environment is really demanding.

“Everyone who goes there, it doesn't matter if it's a manager, a player, a staff member, you have to understand this club is demanding and this creates a lot of pressure on people to make the right decisions.

“Nobody can prepare [for] this step. I cannot speak for the new manager but you can't prepare. You have to be there and if you are there, then you really feel what it means.”

Back in the Red Bull machine

Austria is not new ground for him. Nor is the Red Bull way.

Rohl’s coaching career took off at RB Leipzig under Ralph Hasenhuttl before he followed him to Southampton. The move to Salzburg feels like a return to a familiar language – high tempo, aggressive pressing, young players on fast-forward.

He arrives at a club that has, by its own standards, stalled. Salzburg won 10 Austrian Bundesliga titles in a row. The last three seasons? Nothing. Last year they finished third.

For Rohl, that makes the challenge more attractive, not less.

“This is the main part of my character, be brave. In the last three years I always pushed the limit,” he says, describing keeping Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship in 2023-24 as a “miracle”.

“I want to win titles and, after the season, I will measure myself on this result.

“When you take over, the main part is winning titles, the cup and the league and in the last few years we couldn't win this as a club, this is one big goal.

“The second is of course developing young players.”

At Salzburg, that second part is non-negotiable.

Lucas Gourna-Douath is the latest to step off the production line, close to joining Hull. The recent alumni list reads like a Champions League roll call. Karim Adeyemi left for Borussia Dortmund in 2022 and joined Barcelona this summer. Erling Haaland used his 2019-20 season here as a launchpad to Dortmund and then the elite. Sadio Mane, Dayot Upamecano, Dominik Szoboszlai – all passed through Taxham on their way to the top.

“Ten years ago we were the model for other clubs and now you see more and more on the market have this multi-club ownership and this is also now a competition for us,” says Rohl, who has also worked at Bayern Munich and with Germany.

“I want to win titles, develop young players, be attractive and I want to bring Salzburg back into the light in Europe.”

Early steps, early signals

The first signs under Rohl have been encouraging, if not flawless.

On Thursday in Pafos, Salzburg stared at a 2-0 deficit and the prospect of an early Europa League exit. They came back swinging, drew 3-3 on the night and went through 4-3 on aggregate to reach the Europa League play-off round against Sweden’s Mjallby.

Domestically, they travel to WSG Tirol on Sunday with four points from their opening two league matches – a win over Hartberg and a 1-1 draw at Wolfsberg that frustrated more than it alarmed. Salzburg dominated that game but had to settle for a point.

“Nobody spoke directly about the eight changes or the reason why we didn't win,” Rohl smiles. “We analysed the game, we had greater chances, and we really focused on the content and we were not looking for some headlines.

“The main focus is on the football.”

It sounds simple. In Glasgow, it rarely is.

From fever pitch to anonymity

Rohl’s life now has a different tempo. His family are still in Leipzig, just a few hours away. He has time again – time to think, time to breathe, even time for the theatre. Recently he went to see Jedermann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s play that has been a centrepiece of the Salzburg Festival for more than a century.

In this city, he can slip through the streets largely unnoticed. That, after the last three years, has its appeal.

“You can't compare, especially in Glasgow – it's all about football,” he says, his affection for Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday clear. “Let's look just how many podcasts you have after every game. So many opinions.

“Here you are a part of the city. You have loyal supporters but you will have not these [fan] handshakes in the city because this is not usual here.

“It's also enjoyable after three intense years. Ask me – hopefully – after three years here what I like more then I will tell you. But at the moment it's great to go through the city, to have dinner and you are a little undercover.”

Undercover for now. If he restores Salzburg’s dominance at home and drags them back into Europe’s spotlight, anonymity will not last long.