RB Leipzig

In Leipzig, the RB Leipzig badge draws a hostility that has little to do with the scoreline. Dynamo Dresden supplies the fixture with a name, the Saxon derby, but the grievance runs wider: fans of Dresden, of 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and of FC Sachsen Leipzig treat the club as a synthetic import, a badge assembled to look like a football club rather than one that grew into being a football club. FC St. Pauli never even got as far as a derby — talks over a partnership with Red Bull broke down in 2006, and Paulianer opposition to corporate ownership has stood as a point of principle ever since.

The badge itself was bought, not built. Red Bull tried and failed to buy into established sides — FC Sachsen Leipzig among them — before the German federation refused to register a corporate name outright. So in 2009 the company went further down the pyramid, acquiring SSV Markranstädt's playing rights in the Oberliga, the fifth tier, and transplanting its first team, staff and players wholesale into a new club: RasenBallsport Leipzig, founded on 19 May 2009. Markranstädt kept its own name and carried on as a feeder side. Seven years and four promotions later, Leipzig were in the Bundesliga, having won the 2. Bundesliga in 2015/16.

Ralf Rangnick, as sporting director, set the recruitment model and the pressing style the club has stuck to since. Julian Nagelsmann took it to a Champions League semi-final in 2019/20, lost 0-3 to Paris Saint-Germain, still the club's best run in Europe. Domenico Tedesco delivered the first silverware: the DFB-Pokal in 2022, beaten on penalties by SC Freiburg turned the other way, 4-2, and a second in 2023, 2-0 over Eintracht Frankfurt, followed that August by a 3-0 win over Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup. Timo Werner left in 2020 as the club's record scorer, 94 goals; Emil Forsberg still holds its Champions League appearance and goalscoring marks.

None of it has softened the standing grievance in Dresden, where the derby is still argued over as much as played.