RB Leipzig, FC Goa announce three-year partnership | Football News - Hindustan Times
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RB Leipzig, FC Goa announce three-year partnership

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Nov 12, 2020 10:07 PM IST

The prominent Bundesliga club will help train coaches as well as players in the ISL team’s youth set-up.

Indian Super League (ISL) club FC Goa have signed a three-year “strategic partnership” with Bundesliga heavyweights RB Leipzig, the two clubs announced in a virtual press conference on Thursday. The agreement between Goa and last season’s Champions League semi-finalists will last till June 30, 2023.

FC Goa.(ISL)
FC Goa.(ISL)

The partnership will “help garner opportunities both in the football and business spheres for the two clubs”, FC Goa said in a press release. The primary focus will be on youth development.

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“During this period of collaboration, coaches from RB Leipzig’s academy will be welcomed to Goan shores to impart knowledge via workshops. FC Goa will also be sending coaches and players from the club’s youth set-up for further training and learning the intricacies of the game at RB Leipzig’s academy,” said the release.

FC Goa president and co-owner Akshay Tandon said the deal with Leipzig was different from most partnerships signed between Indian clubs and prominent European outfits in recent years. “The biggest difference is that most of the previous partnerships have been some sort of licensing deal or another where the Indian entity has usually licensed a global brand like RB Leipzig. Over here, both the clubs are investing equally into a specific programme which has a specific agenda of mapping out and developing young Indian footballers through online camps, and eventually through offline camps,” he told reporters.

“It’s also about extending each other’s knowledge about how that pathway can be bettered for the future. We have taken our time to figure out what it is that we want to be doing and this is the first step in that,” Tandon added.

RB Leipzig CEO Oliver Mintzlaff expects it to be the first of many such tie-ups. “We want to break new ground with RB Leipzig and now we look to take our first steps internationally,” he said. “The Indian market is interesting to us. There are not many European clubs that deal with the Indian market at such an intense level and I think we have quite an early and sustainable entrance. We also want to leave footprints which include more than just football camps. The grassroots are the first step. We also believe that other opportunities will arise because of this cooperation.”

Mintzlaff clarified that the partnership won’t see Austrian energy drink giant Red Bull, which owns RB Leipzig, buy stakes in FC Goa. “From the Red Bull point of view, they have a great portfolio already and they don’t plan to get another club in that portfolio,” he said.

Red Bull also owns RB Salzburg in Austria, New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Bragantino in Brazil.

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