Danny Rohl's Bold Move from Rangers to Red Bull Salzburg
The sun was coming up over the Pacific when Danny Rohl’s phone started to change his life.
He was on a cruise off Hawaii, 12 hours behind Europe, standing on the main deck at five or six in the morning, staring at the sea and the sky. His mind, though, was thousands of miles away – in Glasgow and in Salzburg.
"Some people were asking why but I felt this is the right one now. I can confirm, it's a good move," he says.
By June, the 37-year-old had walked away from Rangers and into Red Bull Salzburg, swapping the noise of Ibrox for the calm of Taxham, the club’s training base on the edge of the city. His office looks out towards the Berchtesgaden Alps. The setting is postcard-perfect; the route here has been anything but.
From chaos at Ibrox to calm in the Alps
Rohl’s last 12 months have been a blur. He arrived at Sheffield Wednesday in crisis and left a miracle behind. He took over Rangers when they were sixth in the SPL, with one win from eight league games, and dragged them into a title race that had no right to involve them.
For a while, it looked like something extraordinary was building. Then came the crash: four defeats in their final five matches. From surging contenders to third place. From mayhem with momentum to mayhem without reward.
Rohl fully expected to stay.
He was expected to stay.
Then came the call. Salzburg were interested. The timing was awkward, the offer tempting.
"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, lay in Austria.
"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."
The restart won.
Derek McInnes came in at Ibrox – fresh from taking Hearts to the brink of the title before losing out to Celtic on the final day – and inherited a club still shaking from that late-season collapse. After Thursday's Europa League exit to Jagiellonia Bialystok, McInnes has failed to win any of his first four games.
Rohl, speaking before that defeat, did not pretend anyone can ease into that job.
"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."
A bold move back into the Red Bull machine
Austria is not new territory for Rohl. Nor is the Red Bull network.
He cut his teeth at RB Leipzig under Ralph Hasenhuttl, then followed him to Southampton. Now he returns as the man asked to restore Salzburg’s domestic dominance and sharpen their European edge.
This is no routine assignment. Salzburg, who once reeled off 10 straight Austrian Bundesliga titles, have gone three seasons without the trophy. Last year they finished third. For a club built on relentless winning, that is a rupture.
Rohl leans into that challenge.
"This is the main part of my character, be brave. In the last three years I always pushed the limit," he says, describing his escape act with Sheffield Wednesday 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, the two are inseparable. Titles and talent production are part of the same machine.
Lucas Gourna-Douath is the latest to move on, close to joining Hull. The recent alumni list is a reminder of what Taxham can produce: Karim Adeyemi, who went to Borussia Dortmund in 2022 and joined Barcelona this summer; Erling Haaland, whose 2019-20 season here launched him towards Dortmund and then the elite; Sadio Mane, Dayot Upamecano, Dominik Szoboszlai. The conveyor belt is relentless.
Rohl, who has worked at Bayern Munich and with Germany, knows the market has shifted.
"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.
"I want to win titles, develop young players, be attractive and I want to bring Salzburg back into the light in Europe."
Early signs, early standards
The first steps have been encouraging, if not flawless.
On Thursday in Pafos, Salzburg were 2-0 down and heading out of the Europa League. They fought back to 3-3, edged the tie 4-3 on aggregate and booked a play-off round meeting with Swedish side Mjallby. It was messy, but it was alive.
Domestically, they head to WSG Tirol on Sunday with four points from two games. A win over Hartberg, then a 1-1 draw at Wolfsberg that felt like two points dropped given their dominance.
"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."
That line could have come from any coach. With Rohl, it lands differently because of what he has just lived through.
From the Glasgow goldfish bowl to going “undercover”
Glasgow never lets you breathe. Salzburg, by comparison, offers space.
His family remain in Leipzig, only a few hours away. He can work, then step out of the bubble. Recently, he went to the theatre to watch "Jedermann", the Hugo von Hofmannsthal play that has been a centrepiece of the Salzburg Festival for more than a century.
In Glasgow, a night like that would be unthinkable without being stopped, questioned, judged. Here, he can blend in.
"You can't compare, especially in Glasgow - it's all about football," says Rohl, who talks warmly about both Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday. "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, perhaps. But not unnoticed.
Salzburg have hired Rohl to be brave, to push limits again, to turn that Alpine calm into a platform for another storm of titles and talent. The question now is simple: can the man who thrived in chaos turn quiet control into silverware?
