The Charm and Humble Magnanimity of Jürgen Klopp: A Look at the Iconic Coach

A few years ago, my colleague from France Football Thierry Marchand and I set ourselves the task of putting together a file on the ‘dark side’ of Jürgen Klopp, a task more thankless than it seems; because no matter how much we searched, no matter how much we asked question after question to people who had been around him, we found nothing that was usual, nothing that had not already been published and re-published and that would allow us to know about it. really know more about the most charismatic coach of his generation. As we had no desire to spread gossip about his private life – in any case, even the rags of the Springer group, which are worth the Sun, had never found anything on the subject that could titillate their readers – we seemed to have to confine ourselves to introducing our people to what had been said about him in Germany.

What we did not realize – at least initially – is that the real subject was there. Jürgen Klopp was an ordinary man. An ordinary man who did extraordinary things, of course, on the ground, but not only that. The examples are legion. A German friend, who has known Klopp since he played for Mainz 05, told me how, having learned that one of his friends, a musician and Liverpool fan, was recovering rather poorly than well from a serious operation, he spoke to the manager about it. A day later, the convalescent received a video message from the latter, which made him burst into tears.

Klopp sent dozens of messages like this, without being asked, without talking about it publicly, without adding to it. Many stories like this have surfaced since last Thursday, when Liverpool began a four-month mourning period. It’s as if almost everyone has their own. But, at the end of the day, Klopp remains an ordinary man, a being of flesh and blood who displayed neither of two of the most common characteristics among those who practice his profession: egocentrism and paranoia.

Jürgen Klopp

Credit: Getty Images

The art of convincing

Klopp was the opposite. Klopp could be read as an open book, even if certain aspects of his private life remained jealously guarded – his Christian faith, for example, which he assumes without ever putting it forward, even if it guides his life and the exercise of his job

. Be careful: this did not prevent him from having a calculated side, even a tad manipulative, particularly in his relations with the media. I had often had proof of this myself, when I regularly encountered him in the flash interview areas after Premier League matches.

Arriving at the end of the queue, I could hear him answering questions from my English-speaking colleagues from other broadcasters before I could ask mine; and whatever these questions, the answers were always the same, sometimes only with words and bursts of laughter. These responses were, however, frank, and the burst of laughter was not – too – forced. He intended to control the narrative, but he wasn’t going to lie about it. Although he spoke eye to eye, he did not seek to intimidate, because his goal was not to confuse or frighten, but to convince, an art in which he was a master. On our modest scale, what we journalists experienced was a reflection of what his players must have experienced in the locker room.

Sometimes he lost his temper, as every sore loser does. A few colleagues (and at least one interpreter) paid the price over the years; but Klopp knew when he had crossed the line. Having regained his calm, he apologized for his excess, sometimes even in public. Similarly, Ilkay Gundogan recounted how, after receiving a monumental shouting match from Klopp for showing up suffering from a muscular problem at Borussia Dortmund training, his manager took him aside a little later to tell him: “My friend, do you know why I was so angry? I care about you, that’s all. And I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Jürgen Klopp

Credit: AFP

I don’t know what a normal life is

Almost all the clouds passed quickly in Jürgen Klopp’s sky. All except one, who was obscuring it more and more. “I don’t want to wait until I’m too old to have a normal life,” he said in his press briefing ahead of his Reds’ 5-2 victory over Norwich in the FA Cup this weekend. “I don’t know not what a normal life is. I have to find out.” This poignant statement, how many other managers of his caliber (it is true that there are not many of them) could have made it?

It’s a strange feeling that comes from writing a column about Jürgen Klopp in the imperfect tense. He is only 56 years old. He has four titles left to win this season. Although we cried in Liverpool, where it is true that we cry a little more easily than elsewhere in England, we are not talking about a tragedy, but an outcome, in both senses of the word. What he accomplished for his club, his city, his adopted country, only Bill Shankly accomplished before him with the Reds; and the road he took in 2015 has come to an end. His heart told him so, and Klopp is rarely deaf to his calls.

Taking his time to say goodbye, he shares a secret that, it is certain, would have ended up leaking without his approval: it had been two months since his closest associates at Liverpool knew of his decision. In other circumstances, announcing his departure so early could have unbalanced his team and his club. But Jürgen Klopp is not the Claudio Ranieri of 2003-04, the ‘dead man who walks’ who everyone, including him, knew José Mourinho would soon take his place. It didn’t just soften the blow. He gave his leaders the time needed to identify his successor. He gave his players and fans extra motivation to finish this season in style. He gave, as usual, playing “collective” until the end even though it was for his own well-being, and that of those close to him, that he made the choice to leave. He’s only a man, after all.

2024-01-30 22:28:00
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