Germany’s league leaders are by no means the first nouveau riche arrivistes to ostentatiously buy their way to the top, but don’t dismiss them out of hand

This being their maiden season in the German top flight, it is nigh on impossible to profile RB Leipzig without focusing on their controversial journey to the Bundesliga summit. Previously a fifth-tier team from the east German region of Saxony called SSV Markranstädt, the club’s licence was bought in 2009 by the Austrian energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, who promptly rebranded their acquisition by changing their name, crest and kit before beginning their quick ascent through the divisions.

Despite being unable to call themselves Red Bull Leipzig due to DFB regulations (the RB “officially” stands for “RasenBallsport”, which means “lawn sports”), they are unequivocally part of a stable of sports franchises that includes their Austrian feeder club FC Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull Brasil, Red Bull Ghana, New York Red Bulls and Formula One’s Red Bull Racing. Constructs do not get more artificial, so it is little surprise they have become the most hated football club in Germany.

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In 2011, Red Bull’s owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, spoke of his intention to get RB Leipzig into the Bundesliga within three to five years and an investment of €100m in their transfer kitty helped grease the wheels. “We also want to get into the Champions League and be successful there, which is something you can only achieve with a club that plays in one of the top leagues,” said Mateschitz, whose team are firmly on course to meet that particular target sooner rather than later. Fans of rival sides have made no secret of their contempt for a team who, while technically not breaking “50+1” rule in the statutes of the German league that gives members of football clubs a say in the running of their club, certainly flies in the face of the rule’s spirit.

There have been numerous protests against them. In their first Bundesliga home game, a 1-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, their opponents’ hardcore fans passed up the opportunity to visit Die Roten Bullen’s 43,000-capacity Red Bull Arena and instead stayed at home to support their club’s under-23s in a fourth division match. Before a recent match at Bayer Leverkusen’s BayArena home fans threw paint at the Leipzig team bus, while the second division side Dynamo Dresden were fined £54,000 after one of their fans launched a bull’s head towards the pitch during a cup match in August.

For all their detractors, this garish and rather tacky vehicle for the Red Bull group give every indication they are in the Bundesliga for the long haul and look set to become a European footballing force. They are not without their supporters, not least those east German locals who have been starved of any kind of success since VfB Leipzig were relegated in 1994 and have warmly embraced their new club in its infancy. Indeed, a look beyond the club’s lack of soul, complete absence of tradition and hideous bovine branding suggests there is much to admire.

For all their wealth, RB Leipzig’s policy is one of focusing on youth, nurturing young players by giving them valuable game time that might not be available elsewhere before selling them on for a profit when they hit their prime. Their current squad has an average age of just 23 and includes their joint record signing, the Scottish winger Oliver Burke who they snapped up from Nottingham Forest for £13m during the summer. Burke’s decision to eschew a move to one of several Premier League also-rans in favour of relocating to Saxony raised eyebrows in England, but in a recent interview with football website thesetpieces.com the 19-year-old declared himself delighted with his move.

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“I’ve really shown that I’ve come to a fantastic club,” he said after the 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen that sent his team to the top of the league, a position they reinforced with Friday’s 4-1 win at Freiburg. “I don’t really need to say much – look at where we are. It’s been very positive. Every day I’m learning something new and I can only get better at this club. I have the right people around me and I am still at a young age.”

It’s difficult to disagree that RB Leipzig’s sporting director Ralf Rangnick and manager Ralph Hasenhüttl are the right people. A former manager of Stuttgart, Hannover 96, Hoffenheim and Schalke, Rangnick is an innovative tactician renowned as the brains behind the frenetic pressing game that has since become the hallmark of German coaches such as Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp and his successor at Borussia Dortmund, Thomas Tuchel.

Rangnick steered RB Leipzig into the Bundesliga last season before moving upstairs and handing the reins to Hasenhüttl. Nicknamed the “Alpine Klopp”, the Austrian Hasenhüttl is quite the showman but his touchline histrionics belie a shrewd football brain and reputation as a master motivator of hungry young players. Big names are conspicuous by their absence from his squad: despite their enviable wealth, Leipzig’s biggest signings before their first Bundesliga season were the callow Burke, the 21-year-old midfielder Naby Keita from Red Bull Salzburg and the 20-year-old striker Timo Werner from Stuttgart. Raw talents with plenty to prove and, perhaps more importantly, malleable and open minds.

Aged 49, Hasenhüttl has a history of over-achievement at small teams such as Unterhaching and Aalen in Germany’s lower leagues, but it was at Ingolstadt where he rose to national prominence. In his first season he saved the Bavarian club from relegation to Germany’s third division before securing their first ever promotion to the Bundesliga in 2015. Having steered his energetic, swashbuckling RB Leipzig side to the top of Bundesliga within five months of taking charge, he claims they will be difficult to dislodge. “If we keep playing this way and continue to do what we work on and if we can maintain this hunger, then we are going to be hard to beat,’’ he said last week. “Our only objective is to find solutions to get us through the challenges we face each day. Nobody has gifted us our league position. Everybody here believes in what we are doing.’’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest RB Leipzig, succeeding in an otherwise barren football hinterland that was in dire need of a top-flight team. Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

On and off the pitch, Leipzig are well equipped to deal with any of the aforementioned challenges. Defensively stout, they have conceded 10 goals in 12 matches so far this season, while their energetic pressing and lightning fast counterattacking play is grist to the mill of ambitious young players and enthusiastic supporters who appear to adore their inspirational manager. Their bespoke training facilities are state of the art and they have invested €35m (£30m) in an academy which their head of youth development, Frieder Schrof, last year claimed would “be setting the standards when it comes to training facilities, education levels and accommodation”.

RB Leipzig are by no means the first nouveau riche arrivistes to ostentatiously buy their way to the top and are far from unique even in Germany, where Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Hoffenheim enjoy similar corporate backing.

Located in an otherwise barren football hinterland that was in dire need of a top-flight football team, they have been welcomed by the locals in their catchment area. For all the envious, bitter and often justified carping of their many detractors, it is probably only a matter of time before they are grudgingly accepted on a more widespread scale.