Rangnick was then appointed by Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart, winning the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2000, but was dismissed in 2001.

After a brief period with Schalke 04, Rangnick joined TSG Hoffenheim in 2006, and achieved successive promotions to the Bundesliga.

He departed the club in 2011 and returned to Schalke 04, where he won the 2011 DFB-Pokal and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

Rangnick joined Red Bull as director of football in 2012, helping oversee their expansion into European football, emphasising the recruitment of unproven players and developing youth systems with a worldwide scouting base and an attacking on-pitch philosophy across their clubs.

[4] Their clubs have also seen sustained domestic success[5] and generated sizable profits with player transfers,[6][7] which led to Rangnick's promotion to head of sport and development in 2019.

[8] He resigned from Red Bull in 2020 and joined Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow as manager of sports and development in 2021.

Later that year, Rangnick was appointed as interim manager of Manchester United until the end of the 2021–22 season, following which he took charge of the Austria national team.

[15] Rangnick began his playing career at VfB Stuttgart, but was noted for his strategic talents and was added as player-coach.

[16] His playing career was short-lived and was primarily concentrated in Germany, but included a stint at English club Southwick while studying at the University of Sussex.

[17] Rangnick was one of the first coaches to publicise football tactics, notably during a ZDF SportsStudio TV broadcast in December 1998.

This caused an outcry, especially as the team began to lose ground in the table, and by the end of March, Rangnick resigned from the post prematurely[23] and, on 3 May 1999, took control of Stuttgart[29] for the club's final five matches.

[31][32] On 3 May 1999, Rangnick took control of VfB Stuttgart,[29] for the final five games[30] and saw the club finish 1998–99 season in eleventh place.

[44] After missing out on the role as assistant manager for the Germany national team to Joachim Löw, Rangnick was hired by Schalke 04 on 28 September 2004,[45] after Jupp Heynckes left just weeks into the 2004–05 season.

However, the team would fail to progress beyond the group stage, and sat ten points off the pace in the Bundesliga,[49] as well as having crashed 0–6 in the DFB-Pokal to Eintracht Frankfurt.

[68] The game was stopped in the 89th minute, after a beer mug was thrown at the assistant, overshadowing Rangnick's successful debut at Millerntor.

[69] Just weeks after being named the new Schalke coach, Rangnick led his old club to their first UEFA Champions League semi-finals by defeating holders Inter Milan 7–3 on aggregate.

[72] On 22 September 2011, Rangnick stepped down as Schalke's coach due to chronic fatigue syndrome, stating he did not have "the necessary energy to be successful and to develop the team and the club".

[88] Leipzig qualified for the Europa League group stage after knocking out Zorya Luhansk with a 3–2 aggregate score in the play-off round.

[80] Following the dismissal of Ole Gunnar Solskjær after a poor run of results in the first few months of the 2021–22 season, Rangnick was shortlisted as a potential short term manager by Manchester United.

[91] Although the board had initially decided to give caretaker manager Michael Carrick a longer run of games while scouting replacements, Rangnick quickly emerged as the outstanding candidate during interviews, and was appointed as interim manager until the end of the season on 29 November 2021.

Results under Rangnick were good until a Champions League game against Atlético Madrid in February, but the first signs were visible that the temporary nature of the spell and having no long-term plan caused uncertainty.

[101] United finished the season in sixth place with 58 points, the worst points-total record in their Premier League history.

[102] On 29 April 2022, Rangnick was appointed manager of the Austria national team on a two-year deal, starting in June.

Austria had just failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, finishing fourth behind Denmark, Scotland, and Israel, and then losing the play off against Wales.

In April 2024, Rangnick was approached by Bayern Munich, but despite holding talks with the club he turned down their interest and reaffirmed his commitment to Austria.

Under Rangnick's leadership, by 2018, RB Leipzig saw promotion from regional league (tier IV) to the Bundesliga (tier I), and reached the UEFA Champions League; their highest domestic finish was runners-up in the 2016–17 season, while their highest European finish was reaching the semi-finals in the 2019–20 season.

[citation needed] Despite consistent on-field success, RB Leipzig only won one trophy, the Saxony Cup, with Rangnick.

[6][7] On 6 July 2021, he signed a three-year contract as manager of sports and development for Russian Premier League club Lokomotiv Moscow.

[10][11] Rangnick has cited his main coaching influences as Ernst Happel, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Arrigo Sacchi and Zdeněk Zeman,[128] and is credited for influencing Thomas Tuchel, Jürgen Klopp, Julian Nagelsmann, Ralph Hasenhüttl, Marco Rose, Roger Schmidt, Adi Hütter, Oliver Glasner and Matthias Jaissle.

[12][13][129][130] Rangnick has said that a parental seminar about "raising kids with love and consequence" influenced his relationship with the people he works with.