When Oliver Mintzlaff has an urgent problem, Jürgen Klopp doesn’t shy away from overtime. “He’s always available. If you write to him at 11 p.m., you’ll get an answer. If you want something at 5:58 a.m., he’ll get in touch at 6:02 a.m.,” said Red Bull managing director Mintzlaff in a recent interview with Sport Bild: “Jürgen Klopp is a workaholic.”
For a year now, Klopp has been putting his valuable manpower at the service of the Brause empire. On January 1st, the long-time star coach will celebrate his one-year anniversary as “Head of Global Soccer” at Red Bull – and, according to his boss, he can look back on a successful time. “Many were worried that he would outshine everything here. But the truth is: everyone uses the exchange with him, but makes their decisions alone,” said Mintzlaff. For Red Bull, Klopp is “the royal transfer without a fee”.
The former successful coach of Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool FC is responsible for the strategic direction of Red Bull’s entire football network – including Bundesliga club Red Bull Salzburg and the German branch RB Leipzig. Klopp does not act as a coach in day-to-day business, but rather as an overarching source of ideas. His tasks include, among other things, the further development of the game philosophy, the training of coaches, the optimization of scouting and transfer processes as well as the structural integration of the international locations.
The 58-year-old only made limited public appearances and only occasionally appeared in the stands at games. Klopp himself repeatedly emphasized that he primarily wanted to be an “advisor”: “I’m not the shadow boss, but I try to bring in my experience – and I have a lot of it.”
The football world surprised and partly angered Klopp when he announced his entry into the RB cosmos just six months after his departure from Liverpool FC. He had originally announced a longer break, but then things turned out differently. “After almost 25 years on the sidelines, I couldn’t be more excited to be involved in a project like this,” Klopp said in October 2024. He took office two months later.
He is sticking to his fundamental decision against a comeback as a coach. “I didn’t quit on a whim, it was a general decision.” Nevertheless, he left a small back door open: “I’m 58 now. Would I have to make the decision today? I won’t be a coach again. But thank God I don’t have to do that.” He is currently “involved in a project that I really love.”
Klopp would probably still be in demand on the coaching market. But even if a position like that of national coach or a commitment to Real Madrid were to attract, Mintzlaff isn’t worried: “There is no exit clause in the contract and he has clearly committed himself to us.”
Instead, Klopp continues to look for new challenges away from the sidelines. He will be working as a TV expert at MagentaTV at the World Cup next summer. A real workaholic.
