Jürgen Klopp Assembles Football Stars for a 15-Metre Sky Challenge, Giant Treadmills and an Illuminated Target Wall in the Red Bull Ultimate Football Challenge

Red Bull Ultimate Football Challenge with Jürgen Klopp - image 1

For Jürgen Klopp, Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer and one of football’s most respected analytical minds, the best players share two qualities: exceptional skill and the ability to keep the kid inside alive. In professional football, he believes, that second quality is the hardest to hold onto.

For the Red Bull Ultimate Football Challenge, Klopp assembled a team of top players — Neymar Jr. (Brazil), Endrick (Real Madrid), Richard Ríos (Benfica) and Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool) — joined by freestyle footballer Séan Garnier and RB Salzburg’s Nicolas Seiwald — to take on a series of fun and creative skill challenges across São Paulo, Bilbao and Salzburg: from aerial precision suspended 15 meters above the pitch in Brazil, to giant moving treadmills testing close control and finishing in Spain, to an illuminated 94-target wall demanding pinpoint accuracy in Austria. The squad shared a single reserve of 100 balls across all three challenges. They finished with six.

Context

The Red Bull Ultimate Football Challenge was purpose-built to showcase the specific qualities that define each athlete’s game. In São Paulo, Neymar Jr. and challenge partner Séan Garnier faced an aerial control and touch challenge — the qualities that have defined Neymar’s career across clubs in Brazil, Europe, and Saudi Arabia, and the Brazilian national team. In Bilbao, Endrick and Ríos took on giant moving treadmills designed to test close control, movement, and finishing on a constantly shifting surface. In Salzburg, Szoboszlai and challenge partner Nicolas Seiwald — both products of the Red Bull Akademie, with Seiwald a local Salzburg talent — faced a precision passing and penalty challenge built around the technical qualities that define their games at Liverpool and RB Leipzig respectively.

Former football legends Zé Roberto (Brazil, Bayern Munich), Thiago Alcântara (Spain, Barcelona), and Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, Bayern Munich) guided the athletes through their respective challenges.

Key Facts

  • Project: Red Bull Ultimate Football Challenge
  • Host: Jürgen Klopp, Red Bull Head of Global Soccer
  • Athletes: Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (Brazil), Endrick Felipe Moreira de Sousa (Brazil), Richard Ríos (Colombia), Dominik Szoboszlai (Hungary)
  • Challenge Partners: Nicolas Seiwald (RB Leipzig, Austria), Séan Garnier (freestyle footballer, France)
  • Locations: Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil; Bilbao, Spain; Salzburg, Austria
  • Ball Reserve: 100 balls shared across all three challenges
  • Balls Remaining: 6 at completion
  • Challenge 1 Host: Zé Roberto (Brazil, Bayern Munich)
  • Challenge 1 Location: Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu, São Paulo, Brazil
  • Challenge 2 Host: Thiago Alcântara (Spain, Barcelona)
  • Challenge 2 Location: Bilbao, Spain
  • Challenge 3 Host: Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, Bayern Munich)
  • Challenge 3 Location: Salzburg, Austria

Performance Overview

  1. Neymar Jr. and challenge partner Séan Garnier opened Challenge 1 at Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu in São Paulo, a test of the aerial control and touch that have defined Neymar’s career, suspended 15 metres (49 ft.) in the air on a platform, catching and returning balls at varying heights before controlling, juggling and striking into a mini goal held at 20 metres (65 ft.) above the ground.
  2. Neymar Jr. used 22 of the shared 100 balls to complete Challenge 1, leaving 78 for Endrick, Ríos, and Szoboszlai across the remaining two locations.
  3. Endrick and Ríos took on Challenge 2 in Bilbao, a test of close control, movement, and finishing under pressure, navigating custom-built giant treadmills moving at varying speeds and directions, covering a cone slalom, a rolling penalty at a moving target, and a blind cross over a 3-metre (10 ft.) wall that Ríos finished on first touch.
  4. Szoboszlai and challenge partner Nicolas Seiwald faced Challenge 3 in Salzburg, a test of precision passing and penalty technique, against a 9-metre structure featuring 94 illuminated target zones before reaching a moving penalty shootout.
  5. Entering the final stage with 9 balls remaining, Szoboszlai completed the penalty challenge using three.
  6. The squad completed all challenges within the shared reserve, finishing with 6 balls to spare.

Athlete Quotes

Jürgen Klopp: “Nowadays, it’s a big challenge for players to keep the kid inside alive. That’s why we started the game, why we love the game so much. But here you can see, they still have it, they still enjoy it.”

Neymar Jr.: “I thought it would be easier. But after I was up there, I was afraid, and I saw that it was harder than it looked. It’s more because of the wind, how the ball comes, the ball changes direction a lot, so it makes it even more difficult for you to control it.”

Dominik Szoboszlai: “The penalties were the most difficult, but I think overall we worked well together with Nicolas. The challenge was huge, and I didn’t know the first levels, so it was good to get guidance from Bastian. Overall, it was a hard session for me, but in the end, I only needed three balls to finish it.”

Jürgen Klopp: “They were all impressive, and the most impressive was definitely the pass from Endrick on the treadmill. Richard just controlled it with the first touch and scored. I didn’t think that was possible. The control was exceptional.”