As a young defender trying to make a name for himself in Germany’s lower leagues, Danny Rohl’s playing career was ended by injury before he had even reached his 21st birthday.
But his journey in football was far from finished. Indeed, it was only when he hung up his boots that Rohl started to climb the ladder and show his capabilities.
By the time he was in his mid-20s, he had started studying sport science and landed a job as a video analyst and coach with RB Leipzig.
At that time, Leipzig were very much the coming force of German football and it was there that Rohl became steeped in the Red Bull football machine where speed rules and gegenpressing is king.
‘Ralf Rangnick was the first person who showed me what it means to have a clear identity in how you want to play football; the typical Red Bull football — it’s playing fast, always attacking and thinking forward,’ said Rohl in an interview a couple of years ago.
‘With Ralph Hasenhuttl, we arrived in a new country in England with Southampton which was a big step.
Danny Rohl and Russell Martin embrace each other after a match in the English Championship
Rohl has emerged as the front-runner for the Rangers job after Steven Gerrard dropped out
Rohl became a firm favourite at Hillsborough during a testing period off the pitch
‘Then I got the opportunity to work alongside Hansi [Flick], who showed me how to lead the group and it’s not just about improving them as a player but improving them as a human.’
By name-dropping a few of the most prominent German coaches of the past decade or so, it offers a neat summation of Rohl’s fledgling career. He has worked with all of them.
After cutting his teeth with Rangnick at Leipzig and Hasenhuttl at Southampton, it was at Bayern with Flick where his talents were given a bigger platform to shine.
In Bayern’s historic season in 2019-2020, Rohl was assistant manager to Flick as they won a Treble.
He was out on the training pitch working with superstars such as Robert Lewandowski on a daily basis, and would later follow Flick to work with the German national team.
So with it now looking like Rohl is in pole position to land the Rangers job and become the club’s new manager, it is perhaps slightly disrespectful to paint him as some kind of Russell Martin clone.
Ralf Rangnick was in charge at RB Leipzig when a young Rohl emerged as an analyst and coach
Although he is younger than Martin and more inexperienced as a manager, his CV and coaching credentials actually carry more clout and pedigree than Martin’s did.
The word from Rangers is that Rohl was on their radar back in the summer but, at that point, complications around his contract with Sheffield Wednesday made it a difficult deal to do.
Now Rohl is out of work and available. With Steven Gerrard dropping out of the running over the weekend, there looks to be a clear path to Ibrox for the 36-year-old German.
Rohl’s only experience as a head coach has been with Sheffield Wednesday and essentially fire-fighting in their efforts to avoid relegation amid all kinds of financial woes.
There’s nothing on his CV that immediately screams out that he has the capability to manage a club like Rangers, so it’s clearly going to be a punt from the American owners.
An educated punt, but a punt nonetheless. Rohl is said to have impressed with his presentation in London last week. But, then again, the same was said of Martin in the summer.
Rohl moved to England to assist Ralph Hasenhuttl during his time in charge of Southampton
Given that the majority of Rangers fans had their hearts set on Gerrard, this will feel pretty underwhelming if it is to be Rohl.
The cynics will just see it as another guy plucked from the English Championship, that it’s just a rinse and repeat — a fear voiced by former Ibrox favourite Billy Dodds — and that Rohl is effectively just Martin 2.0.
In the short term, his biggest task will be to change those perceptions and to show that his coaching methods have more substance and can deliver results.
Rohl is not a coach who pins himself to a pre-determined philosophy or style of play. He is flexible and adaptable.
Speaking about his time in charge at Hillsborough, he said: ‘My mindset as a manager is that I’m always positive, I always believe and have trust in my players.
‘When you arrive in a club, it’s very important to give the players immediately a direction of how we want to play and how we can be successful.
‘When I arrived at (Wednesday), I showed them three ways we can play football and how we can control the game.
It was at Wednesday where Rohl finally branched out on his own and enhanced his reputation
‘One big part was active front-foot defending, high pressing. If you have high ball-winning situations, you have a short way to the opponent’s goal.
‘A second way was to have a good net for counter pressing and the last point — and it was for me a big, big point — was to improve the ball possession.
‘Every player is a human and from this point you need this connection between your players. You cannot just look to the tactical things and not to the human being.
‘It’s a a great sentence John Wooden [American basketball coach] said — “A good coach can change a game, a great coach can change a life”.
‘Of course, you can improve him on the pitch, but for me it’s also a big part that we want to improve the players as a human off the pitch as well.
‘You cannot be just a tactical engineer on the laptop, you need also the human side: how you can teach your group, how you can improve your group, how you can bring all the tactical stuff to your players.’
When Rohl took charge of Sheffield Wednesday, the club were bottom of the Championship with three points from 11 games.
Hansi Flick was so impressed with Rohl at Bayern that he offered him a role with Germany
By the end of the season, he had steered them to safety with 53 points from 46 matches. A likeable and popular figure, there was a connection between him and the fans.
Whilst nothing has yet been formalised, all indications are that Rohl is now very much the frontrunner to land the Rangers job.
He’s young, he’s talented, and he’s experienced when it comes to operating as a head coach and working alongside a sporting director.
That has been a key part of Rangers’ focus throughout this recruitment process. Kevin Thelwell clearly isn’t going to be binned after only a few months.
The club are determined to try and make this new structure work. Rohl could well be a gamble, but it’s a roll of the dice that looks to have more chance of success than Martin did.
