Ready for the island? Liverpool apparently wants to sign Jörg Schmadtke
Quelle: Getty Images/Stuart Franklin
Jörg Schmadtke actually ended his career as a football manager in February. But now there is apparently a big challenge in England. After Alemannia Aachen, Hannover 96, 1. FC Köln and VfL Wolfsburg, Liverpool FC is waiting.
SRetirement is less than three months old, so Jörg Schmadtke has an opportunity that he himself had never imagined. According to consistent media reports, he is to become the new sporting director of Liverpool FC. The English newspaper “The Telegraph” was the first to write on Saturday evening that the long-time Bundesliga manager at Jürgen Klopp’s club is the favorite for the post. Other media then also reported on concrete negotiations between the two sides in the past few days. In any case, there is increasing evidence of a commitment alongside Klopp.
The 59-year-old Schmadtke last worked from July 2018 to January 2023 as sporting director of VfL Wolfsburg before actually declaring his long managerial career to be over. “I’ve been doing all this for so long and I’ve realized that it’s time to end this chapter,” he said in parting. “There are other things in life I want to do. I’m thinking first and foremost of my wife and my family, who had to put things back for many years.”
Liverpool would be Schmadtke’s first top club
Before his time in Wolfsburg, Schmadtke worked for 1. FC Köln, Hannover 96 and Alemannia Aachen. He led all three clubs into international competition, but he has never worked for a big top club like nine-time European Cup winners and 19-time English champions Liverpool FC in his career.
Eleven years ago: Jörg Schmadtke (left) as sporting director of Hannover 96 and Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp
Source: pa/dpa/Peter Steffen
At the LFC, which still has minimal chances of participating in the Champions League, the previous sports director Julian Ward announced his departure at the end of the season last November. Since then, the “Reds” have been looking for a successor. The position is vacant.
Klopp and Schmadtke may not have worked together at a club before, but they respect each other personally. “For me he is a great personality,” said Klopp in an interview with the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung” in January about Schmadtke.
