The young have the ability to make everyone else look and feel old. Julian Nagelsmann is so precocious he threatens to pension his rivals off.
The German is 33, fully five years younger than Pep Guardiola was when, at 38, he became the youngest manager to win the Champions League.
If the German threatens one of his profession’s respected elders, he has already eliminated two more.
When Nagelsmann started working with Hoffenheim's first team, goalkeeper Tim Wiese nicknamed him "Baby Mourinho." Given the differences in their brands of football, it feels one of the least accurate monikers but Jose Mourinho's Tottenham were outmanoeuvred and outclassed in RB Leipzig's 4-0 aggregate win.
Mourinho has not won the Champions League since 2010. Diego Simeone appears more modern but he has not reached the final since 2016 after Nagelsmann’s underdogs showed more ambition and fluidity on Thursday.
Atletico Madrid, with their two blocks of four, started to look outmoded. "Nagelsmann's ideas are brilliant," said Tyler Adams, the scorer of the winner. "We switched in and out of different formations throughout to cause them problems." Attacking football again trumped a more defensive game.
Nagelsmann was not involved on Friday when an era ended in spectacular fashion but if Bayern Munich's 8-2 thrashing of Barcelona highlighted the increasing ascendancy of the Bundesliga and the merits of the pace and pressing that Leipzig also produce, it was also notable for the ages of the vanquished.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Gerard Pique and Arturo Vidal are all older than Nagelsmann. So is the mentor he meets on Tuesday night.
Paris Saint-Germain manager Thomas Tuchel has common denominators with his compatriot, another whose playing days were curtailed by injury and who became a career coach.
Leipzig knock out Atletico Madrid
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Leipzig's manager Julian Nagelsmann celebrates after the Champions League quarter-final win over Atletico Madrid at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon on Thursday. AP -
Julian Nagelsmann, 33, steered Leipzig to their maiden Champions League semi-final against PSG with a gritty 2-1 victory over Atletico Madrid, having swept aside Jose Mourinho's Tottenham in the last 16. AP -
Leipzig's US midfielder Tyler Adams shoots to score his goal during the Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid. AFP -
Atletico Madrid's Mexican midfielder Hector Herrera jumps with Leipzig's Austrian midfielder Marcel Sabitzer. AFP -
RB Leipzig players celebrate after winning their Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid at the Jose Alvalade stadium. AP -
RB Leipzig's journey has been fascinating. Austrian drinks manufacturer Red Bull bought fifth-division German club SSV Markranstadt in 2009, renaming the club RasenBallsport Leipzig. Reuters -
It took just seven years for RB Leipzig to make it to the Bundesliga. A fifth-place finish in Bundesliga 2 in 2015 forced a second season in the second tier, where Leipzig finished second and won promotion to the top-flight. Reuters -
Leipzig went a record 13 matches unbeaten from their Bundesliga debut, eventually finishing in second place and reaching the 2017/18 Champions League. AP
Tuchel was in charge of Augsburg’s second team 12 years ago when Nagelsmann was forced into premature retirement. He started scouting opponents for Tuchel. “I'm very grateful to him for giving me the idea of becoming a coach,” he said.
He went to 1860 Munich’s Under-17s, then their Hoffenheim counterparts, then as assistant coach before he became the Bundesliga’s youngest manager at 28.
A fast track to the top could have been completed at 31. Real Madrid wanted him. A realist rejected them, recognising it could have led to a swift fall. "I didn't feel comfortable with a decision to go there," Nagelsmann told the Independent in February.
“I want to improve. If you go to Real Madrid, there’s no time to improve. You don’t have a chance to be a better manager, you already have to be the best.”
Nagelsmann is getting there. He has fourth- and third-placed finishes in the Bundesliga, both with clubs which lacked a tradition of success. He has made Leipzig, just 11 years old, the newest Champions League semi-finalists. He has done so without their best player, with the 34-goal forward Timo Werner already moving to Chelsea.
“It’s not a case of us being unable to replace him,” Nagelsmann counselled last week. The win against Atletico proved as much, with Dani Olmo scoring in Werner’s stead.
If Leipzig’s success owes much to a scouting system that enabled them to get Dayot Upamecano, Europe’s most coveted young centre-back, for €10 million (Dh43.5m) and the assist machine Christopher Nkunku for a further €13 million, it also reflects on Nagelsmann’s capacity to conjure improvement from emerging players. They had the youngest average age in the Bundesliga last season, at 24.
Now Tuchel is the latest elder in Nagelsmann’s sights, even if clubs built on contrasting recruitment models may share a footballing philosophy.
"Games against Thomas are always very interesting because he has a very good idea of how to play football,” added Nagelsmann. And so does he.
