Football: Klopp about office as a DFB coach: “I could have said”

Jürgen Klopp could have become the celebrated German national football coach at the home European Championship-but when the DFB in 2023 was looking for a new coach, the cult trainer remained at the cravilating FC Liverpool. Now the 58-year-old has spoken about his decision at the time. “The season before that was not going so well for Liverpool – and in summer after this season, Germany was looking for a new national coach. I could have said” yes “because it might have been better to do something else,” said Klopp of “Welt am Sonntag”.

Klopp: “I didn’t want to”

He decided differently. “I didn’t want to. And the decision was not about the job of the national coach itself. I couldn’t leave Liverpool like that. There was a team when I had a relationship with which I had a relationship,” said Klopp. He wanted to “judge” again in Liverpool with new players and the core team. “That was important to me. We managed to do it too. Nevertheless, the decision matured to stop in Liverpool.”

At the end of January 2024, Klopp announced that it would leave the club at the end of the season, the team finally ended up in third place on the Premier League and won the league cup. In the season after his farewell, Liverpool became the new coach Arne Slot Meister, the DFB team was unhappy at the home European European Championships in the quarter-finals against Spain under Julian Nagelsmann, but delighted football Germany.

Klopp finally joined Red Bull in January 2025 as Global Head of Soccer. To a possible return to the coaching bench, he said: “My feeling tells me: No. I loved my job. But I don’t miss anything.”