RB Leipzig Quiz

RB Leipzig are the club German football argues about, and the club that climbed quicker than almost anyone. They were founded on 19 May 2009, when Red Bull bought the playing rights of SSV Markranstädt — a small side from a town just west of Leipzig — for a reported 350,000 euros and built a new club around the licence. Even the name is a piece of engineering: German football's rules did not allow a company name inside a club's name, so the invented word 'RasenBallsport', roughly 'lawn ball sports', exists purely so the initials could stay RB. They started in the fifth-tier NOFV-Oberliga Süd and won it at the first attempt.

The first night that really announced them came in 2011, in the club's first ever DFB-Pokal tie: fourth-tier Leipzig beat Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg 3-2, Daniel Frahn helping himself to a first-half hat-trick in front of 31,212 at the Red Bull Arena. Alexander Zorniger's high-pressing team then went up out of the Regionalliga in 2013 and out of the 3. Liga in 2014, before Ralf Rangnick — the sporting director and architect of the whole project since 2012 — stepped into the dugout himself for the 2015-16 promotion season and handed the team to Ralph Hasenhüttl for the top flight. Four promotions in seven years took them to their first Bundesliga match in 2016-17, and Hasenhüttl's side finished second at the first attempt, with Timo Werner, signed from boyhood club VfB Stuttgart, scoring 21 Bundesliga goals.

Then came Europe. Julian Nagelsmann arrived in 2019 from Hoffenheim, where he had taken charge as a rookie in 2016, and in 2019-20 his side knocked Tottenham out of the Champions League 4-0 on aggregate — a Werner penalty in London, then 3-0 in Leipzig against José Mourinho. In Lisbon they beat Atlético Madrid 2-1, Tyler Adams' deflected late strike sending them into a European semi-final for the first time, before Paris Saint-Germain won the one-off semi 3-0 and Bayern, who had beaten Lyon in the other half of the draw, went on to lift the trophy. Silverware followed in 2022, when the DFB-Pokal became the club's first trophy of real weight; Marco Rose, who had replaced Domenico Tedesco in September 2022, retained it by beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 in Berlin the following June.

There is a whole other quiz hiding in the players who passed through. Joshua Kimmich spent two seasons at Leipzig from 2013 in the third and second tiers, with Bayern agreeing to sign him in January 2015 — before Leipzig had ever played a Bundesliga game. Yussuf Poulsen joined from Lyngby the same year in the 3. Liga and was still there for that 2020 semi-final. Later the club became a selling machine: Dominik Szoboszlai left for Liverpool in 2023 when his release clause was triggered, following the Salzburg-to-Leipzig-to-Anfield path Naby Keïta had taken years earlier, while Joško Gvardiol moved to Manchester City that same summer for a fee that made him, in 2023, one of the most expensive defenders in history. Every question here carries a short explanation, so one you miss still teaches you the fact behind it. Play the sample set free in your browser, no sign-up, then open the Ball IQ app for the full RB Leipzig set, daily challenges and head-to-head multiplayer.

Ball IQ has 20 RB Leipzig questions — 7 easy, 9 medium and 4 hard.