Jurgen Klopp was accused of betrayal, but Liverpool and Red Bull share something in common

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Over a quarter of a century and three clubs, Jurgen Klopp had built a reputation as a people’s champion, the charismatic communicator with the ability to get everyone to buy into what he was doing. His legend was burnished, his legacy lived on.

Nine years after his departure from Borussia Dortmund, he was welcomed back to Signal Iduna Park in September to train in a testimonial match between the teams captained by Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek, once again making his trademark fists in front of the Yellow Wall .

On Saturday, Mainz turned their attention to the manager who propelled them from Germany’s second flight to Europe. “Have you forgotten everything we gave you?” read a banner “Bist du bekloppt?” (“Are you crazy?”) asked another, punning on his surname in his native language. For once, the people turned against Klopp.

And so until Wednesday. RB Leipzig against Liverpool has taken on another dimension. It is Klopp’s future, however, against his past. He said that when he left Liverpool he would not coach another English club. His second bombshell of 2024 was instead to announce that he will become Red Bull’s global head of football in January. He’s on vacation for now, but with a special interest this week. The embryonic Champions League table, after two games, looks good for his former clubs, with Dortmund first and Liverpool fifth: less for two who will now occupy their time, with Leipzig 29th and Red Bull Salzburg, under Pep Lijnders, 34th out of 36 teams.

And now Klopp, as the protests in Mainz indicate, is linking up with Leipzig. The sense of betrayal among the German football public reflects Leipzig’s pariah status. Perceived as the bogus club, circumventing Germany’s 50+1 ownership rule, benefiting from corporate backing and the way the massive Zentralstadion had a new ground built there because it was politically important to the former Germany of the East to have a host place in the 2006 World Cup, Leipzig are the anti-Dortmund. The hiring of German football’s most popular figure, who has vowed to “learn again”, could be seen as a Kloppwashing: it will be instructive to see if it hurts his commercial appeal to his sponsors.

But there is the political and the personal, the financial and the football. Klopp, for once, may be out of touch with wider opinion. However, there has been the question of what he would do next; if, indeed, there would be a “next”. He had said he would not manage this season, a statement some ignored when he was touted for the England job or when the United States approached him. He’s been to Euro 2024 and the Paralympic Games, to a Taylor Swift concert and to Instagram, perhaps more than he should have been. Having left his empire, he has now found a role.

What have you been looking for? “It’s my life, so I might miss it,” he said in his final days at Anfield. “But I have to look the other way.” A look at life outside of football produced a telling conclusion. “I don’t see myself on the sidelines anymore, but I still love football and work and Red Bull gives me the perfect platform for that,” Klopp said. That feeling that he may be finished with the dugout, at least as far as club football is concerned, has been there for some time: the intensity of his football matched the intensity of his management and left him exhausted, looking at his pictures. arrival at Anfield and noticed how much younger he looked. If a job were to tempt him, it’s easy to imagine Klopp replacing Julian Nagelsmann as Germany manager in 2026. It might be his ideal scenario, although Nagelsmann himself doubted Klopp had an exit clause in his agreement with Red Bull to become the Bundestrainer.

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For now, Klopp is moving up. In 2019, with the air of a man who thought a chief executive was something to be had, Liverpool chairman Tom Werner said that Klopp could be “a world-class chief executive for any company in the world”.

Instead, a world football boss is his boardroom role. And the inconvenient reality for Klopp’s new critics may be that the Red Bull stable of clubs, Leipzig and Salzburg in particular, come from the same footballing school of thought as Dortmund and Liverpool. Red Bull managers have included Nagelsmann, Ralph Hasenhuttl and Ralf Rangnick, all teammates. gegenpressersthe last significant influence on Klopp. Their clubs have been noted for doing excellent transfer business, for exceeding their budgets, for finding and improving young players. They have been money players with a penchant for heavy metal football.

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At Liverpool, Klopp raided the Red Bull stable: Dominik Szoboszlai, Ibrahima Konate and Naby Keita came from Leipzig. Both midfielders are also former Salzburg players, along with Takumi Minamino. So is Sadio Mane, one of Klopp’s best signings. The traffic trade has been two-way: Leipzig sold Fabio Carvalho last season. Salzburg took Bobby Clark, Stefan Bajcetic and Klopp’s teammate Lijnders this year.

And while that could put him in an awkward position if Austrian soccer’s budget club continues to underperform, the DNA that qualifies footballers to play for Liverpool also equips them for the Red Bull family. Anfield may represent authenticity, Red Bull appears to be corporate, but Klopp, despite his common touch, is usually a good business man for Liverpool’s billionaire businessmen. Klopp can move through the corridors of power, even if he relates to those who don’t. “I’m not a socialist, but I come from there and I understand life that way,” he said in May.

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In one respect, he was Bill Shankly’s successor. In another, he will soon be the figurehead of a club that, unlike Liverpool and Dortmund, is not driven by the people.

And yet for a manager who has spent much of the last decade and a half finding a way to overhaul a richer rival, be it Bayern Munich or Manchester City, with smart recruitment and a plan of high-energy play, his stint at Leipzig, advising manager Marco Rose, can feel distinctly familiar.