Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig: the bearer of hope after Timo Werner

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The new star in the RB jersey: Christopher Nkunku was involved in 21 goals this season

Christopher Nkunku pushes out his chest, his arms look strong, his shoulders broad. The 22-year-old from RB Leipzig actually has a rather slim figure with 1.75 meters and 68 kilograms. But on the poster that his association had 1400 of them hung in Lisbon, Nkunku looks robust and ready.

A strange task awaits Nkunku and RB Leipzig in the evening. In fact, the club has been qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League for almost half a year. But the preparation for the duel against Atlético (9 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: Sky) was still not easy. The reason is to say goodbye to Timo Werner. He scored 34 hits and 13 assists last year. The team was aimed at him, he was their target player.

Experiments without the goalscorer could not allow RB in everyday league, it was too tight in the fight for re-qualification for the premier class. Timo Werner always had to play. Only now, a few weeks after the end of the Bundesliga, can you try yourself without the key player: in the biggest duel in the club's history. Nkunku will be one of the new leaders in the Bundesliga third team against Atlético.

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Nkunku against all: The French in the duel against Fortuna Düsseldorf

The offensive player - trained like so many French sports stars in the Parisian area - is strong at dribbling and has a good feel for the pass into the top, even if he occasionally loses the ball in the forward movement. But that happens with players who take the risk. And he is still young, capable of development. In any case, his qualities will be in demand against Atlético, in a duel against one of the best defensive rows in Europe; In the past seven seasons, coach Diego Simeone's team has never conceded more than 29 goals in the Spanish league (out of 38 games this season).

In his first season for RB Nkunku came in 42 competitive games for use, 16 assists and five goals get him; Thomas Tuchel had previously used Nkunku regularly at Paris. But PSG let him go, and in Leipzig he only needed a little start-up to take on a central role. This is also made clear by the advertising posters in Lisbon, where the Champions League is played to the end in a tournament mode. Marcel Sabitzer and Marcel Halstenberg can be seen to the right and left of Nkunku. You have been playing for the club for over five years and are almost veterans. But in the middle is Nkunku.

Leipzig will have to sell players

It is uncertain whether Nkunku will play for the club as long as Sabitzer and Halstenberg. His contract runs until 2024, so the player should cost a high fee in the event of an early sale, but this will hardly put off interested parties. And it will also be in the interests of the club that the Frenchman is coveted on the transfer market.

Thanks to start-up financing from Red Bull in the millions, Leipzig was able to establish itself among the best German teams in a hurry. But they no longer cover the increased costs of the management. Leipzig is still a long way from making a profit. That only became clear recently when a conversion of 100 million euros in liabilities into equity (thanks to Red Bull) became known in April 2019. Without the renewed financial aid, Leipzig would have a mountain of debt of 224 million euros.

Leipzig therefore also needs external sources of money, for example transfer proceeds, and due to the obligations of numerous young top talents from all over Europe, the club has many players in the squad that it could sell for dearly. Nkunku is one of them, he could go a path like Timo Werner or Naby Keita before. Both already played at VfB Stuttgart and Salzburg at a higher level, but they only made the big step in their career in Leipzig - Chelsea now invested 53 million euros in transfer for Werner, Keita was worth 60 million euros to Liverpool FC in 2018. Nkunku came to Leipzig from Paris Saint-Germain for 13 million euros. According to "Transfermarkt", his market value is now 33 million euros.

Scouting top talents, developing them in a professional team, Leipzig can do that.

But Nkunku also stands for something that is not going so well in Leipzig - developing one's own talents. "The new benchmark is called RB Leipzig," wrote the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" in March 2015. The article was about the 33 million euro youth performance center of the then second division club. Since then, the NLZ has been expected to generate annual costs of 15 million euros. In 2018, the 18 Bundesliga clubs spent an average of seven million euros on young talent per club.

The best young product from Leipzig was a trainer

But the income at RB looks poor: Leipzig's junior teams, U17 and U19, are among the best in Germany, but no talent from their own ranks has made it into the professional team, not even into the team of another Bundesliga club. The most prominent alumnus of their own offspring is Sebastian Hoeneß, formerly the junior coach in Leipzig, from this season head coach at TSG Hoffenheim. That's nice for the club archive. But there is no money to be made with training as a coach.

Leipzig boss Oliver Mintzlaff recently told "RBlive": "I am not so satisfied with the youth concept so far. The output of players in relation to the money invested is too low."

At Atlético, Saúl, Koke, Thomas and Álvaro Morata could be in the starting XI in the evening, they all come from their own youth. Their market value should be almost 200 million euros. Atlético recently turned other talents into cash: with the sale of Lucas Hernández to Bayern Munich, the club achieved a transfer fee of 80 million euros last summer, while Manchester City spent 70 million euros on Rodri in the same transfer window.

At RB, Dennis Borkowski might make it into the squad in the evening, 18 years old, center forward, eight minutes in the Bundesliga so far. Or Fabrice Hartmann, 19 years old, still without commitment. Market value: less than one million euros.

At Atlético shows how much the club benefits from the youth work in terms of sport and economy. But the comparison with Leipzig is an extreme example, it may also be limping when you compare the history of both clubs. Atlético has grown over decades, a big name in Spanish football, a sought-after point of contact for young talents. RB Leipzig has been around thanks to Red Bull and has only been around since 2009. However, that won't play a role in the quarter-final duel.