The US Players at RB Leipzig and in the Bundesliga

RBL x USA!

Between July 28 and August 4 RB Leipzig will go on their first US tour. The friendly match against English top club Aston Villa on August 1 (2:00AM CEST) at Harrison, New Jersey’s Red Bull Arena, will be the first match on American soil.

Three players from the US have worn the RB Leipzig jersey so far. RBL is also one of the few Bundesliga clubs to have had a head coach from the USA.

Let’s take a look at the Americans at RB Leipzig and in the Bundesliga.

Terrence Boyd – the goal hunter

Terrence Boyd joined the Red Bulls from Rapid Vienna on the 2014/15 season, after scoring 20 league and Europa League goals for the Austrian record champions the previous season. However, a cruciate ligament tear slowed the 14-time US international striker down for several months at the start of the season.

After his injury, Terrence, the son of an American father and a German mother, made his first appearance in the starting eleven in the DFB Pokal against our then second division rivals FC Erzgebirge Aue. He scored the goal to make it 3-1 in extra time. A little less than a month later, the then 23-year-old scored a brace in a 4-1 win against FC St. Pauli.

Unfortunately, these were to be Terrence’s last goals for our first team, because shortly after his brace against St. Pauli, he tore his cruciate ligament again.

In the following season, the 1.88-meter-tall player was part of the RBL promotion squad, but was unable to take part in a single game. In the first half of the 2016/17 season, Boyd scored five goals for our second team in the Regionalliga Nordost before moving to SV Darmstadt 98 in 2017.

In addition to his great character and his goals, Terrence’s amazing goal celebration will also be remembered. Today, the centre forward plays for the German third division club SV Waldhof Mannheim.

Details

Name: Terrence Boyd

Birthday: February 16, 1991 in Bremen (Germany)

Position: Striker

At RB Leipzig: From 2014 to 2017

Matches and goals for RBL: 17 matches / 8 goals

Matches for the USMNT: 14 senior matches

Tyler Adams’ success story

Tyler Adams wrote his own success story in Leipzig, when he moved from the New York Red Bulls, where he joined at an academy level as a kid, to our Bundesliga team during the winter break of the 2018/19 season. At just 19 years of age, the defensive midfielder needed little time secure a place in the first eleven.

The following year, Ty’s big moment came when he scored the match-winner in the glorious Champions League quarter final in Lisbon against Atlético Madrid ,for the 2-1 winning goal in the 88th minute. For RBL, reaching the semi-final of the Champions League is one of the greatest successes in the club’s history.

In 2020/21, Tyler celebrated the second runner-up spot in the Bundesliga with RBL and then led the USMNT onto the pitch as captain for the first time. One season later, the New York-native won the DFB Pokal with Leipzig in 2022 and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League.

At the start of the 2022/2023 season, Tyler moved to Premier League’s Leeds United. The then 23-year-old also wore the US captain’s armband at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He now plays for AFC Bournemouth.

Details

Name: Tyler Adams

Birthday: February 14, 1999 in Wappingers Falls, New York (USA)

Position: Midfielder

At RB Leipzig: From 2019 to 2022

Matches and goals for RBL: 103 match / 2 goals / 4 assists

Matches and goals for the USMNT: 42 senior matches / 2 goals

Cherundolo, Pulisic and co.

Caden Clark joined us as a young talent from the New York Red Bulls in 2021, but did not play for our first team. Today, the 21-year-old is back playing in his home country for Minnesota United.

There have been a total of 77 Americans in the Bundesliga so far. Steven Cherundolo is the most famous one, having played an impressive 302 times for Hannover 96 in Germany’s top football league. Timothy Chandler, who currently plays for Eintracht Frankfurt, and John Anthony Brooks (currently TSG Hoffenheim) also reached the 250-game mark.

Fabian Johnson, Thomas Dooley, Jermaine Jones, Alfredo Morales, Christian Pulisic, Giovanni Reyna, Joe Scally, Kasey Keller, Tony Sanneh and Michael Bradley have made over 75 appearances, Tyler Adams‘ tally.

Jesse Marsch – A US coach for RBL

Jesse Marsch returned as RB Leipzig’s head coach of in 2021. In the 2018/19 season, the American was an assistant coach of the then RBL coach Ralf Rangnick. After a third place and reaching the 2019 DFB Cup final against FC Bayern Munich, Jesse moved on to Austria.

He took over the position of head coach at FC Red Bull Salzburg, following Marco Rose. Jesse became Austrian champion with the team and also won the ÖFB Cup.

After leaving Leipzig in December 2021, Jesse Marsch took over as head coach of Premier League club Leeds United. The 50-year-old has been Canada’snational coach since May 2024. At the 2024 Copa America, he led his team to the semi-finals as the tournament’s surprise and was only outmatched by eventual winners Argentina.

Jesse Marsch was the third head coach in the Bundesliga with a US passport. David Wagner (2019 to 2020 at Schalke 04) and Pellegrino Matarazzo (VfB Stuttgart / currently TSG Hoffenheim) landed in the German top flight before him.