The Tyneside giants witnessed a sea change last week as a consortium backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund completed a takeover at the club from Mike Ashley.
Newcastle’s new owners are looking to make huge changes at the club and are on the hunt for a new sporting director along with a new manager, and ex-RB Leipzig boss Rangnick is among the names linked with a post at St. James’ Park.
Ex-Magpies star Ba, who played under Rangnick at Hoffenheim, revealed he is thrilled at the prospect of the German becoming sporting director at Newcastle, given his excellent track record of building great teams that are capable of achieving sustained success from scratch.
Ba admitted that it is crazy to comprehend how much Rangnick could achieve at Newcastle, where he would be heavily backed by their new owners.
“Now I’m buzzing”, Ba told The Athletic.
“I’m buzzing twice, actually.
“First, because of the takeover and secondly, when I read that they’re thinking of Ralf [as a sporting director], I thought: ‘Oh, Newcastle are about to become something special.’
“When you see how he built Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig from scratch, taking on Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, spending money in a way that creates value and leaving behind structures that will sustain the success for years to come, it’s crazy to think what he could do, starting from a much higher base at Newcastle.”
It remains to be seen whether Rangnick will take on some role at Newcastle in the coming weeks, for what would be his first stint in English football.
