Curious interlude 13 years ago
©IMAGO
Kevin Kampl is leaving RB Leipzig this winter at his own request. The 35-year-old midfielder’s career is probably over, as he said on Saturday when he said goodbye to the Saxons (to the report). It was a career with high-profile positions at Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. The fact that VfR Aalen is also one of Kampl’s former clubs is almost forgotten today. It was an extremely bizarre interlude that brought VfR a million-dollar profit within just a few games. We look back at the events from the summer of 2012.
Second division team Aalen secured Kampl from VfL Osnabrück for a fee of just 250,000 euros. Shortly before, Kampl had a great day in the purple-white jersey against the already promoted team from Aalen with three assists in Osnabrück’s 4-0 (1-0) win at VfR on the last third division matchday of 2011/12. At the start of the 2012/13 season, coach Ralph Hasenhüttl was only able to rely on newcomer Kampl for four games in Aalen. Kampl contributed two goals and three assists in these few appearances, then Aalen sold him to Red Bull Salzburg after just two months of his contract. Cost: 3 million euros; twelve times the purchase price paid recently.
“We designed the contract like that, and that was also a condition of Kevin,” explained the then Aalen sports director Markus Schupp afterwards to Transfermarkt in an interview in autumn 2012. The manager added to the player’s contract clause: “Otherwise he might not have come. We wanted to take the risk and paid a transfer fee for Kevin. There were many clubs that were interested but didn’t want to take that risk.”
The first contact with Salzburg and the person in charge there, Ralf Rangnick, was three days before the transfer deadline, Schupp told us. “He called and made me a suggestion, which I rejected in a very short time. We didn’t want to give it up and if we did, we would do so under the conditions stipulated in the contract. The following Friday the news came from Salzburg that we were doing it, and then all that was left was for Kevin to come to an agreement with the club. From our point of view, there was nothing left to oppose.”
Kampl later moved on to BVB for 12 million euros, then to Leverkusen for 11 million euros and finally to RB Leipzig for 20 million euros. Kampl did not again generate a profit as large as for Aalen. In 2012, manager Schupp stated: “He leaves a big gap in terms of sport, but to get such an interest after ten weeks in our team, you can’t say no.”