It was in 2023, at the dawn of a new cycle for Mannschaft. Jürgen Klopp, then still coach of Liverpool, had been approached to take over the reins of the German national team. The moment seemed conducive: disappointing results in Anfield, end of the perceptible cycle, and a nation in search of renewal. The offer had everything “Job of his life”, And yet, she remained unanswered.
Loyalty assumed towards Liverpool
In an interview with
Welt Am SonntagKlopp returned for the first time to this choice. He admits having hesitated, especially after a frustrating season in Liverpool. But he could not, in his words, “Just not leave”.
True to his locker room and his ideas, he had just built a new group around recruits like Endo, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister. He wanted to see this project hatch, despite the attraction of a historic position.
This refusal has not signed the end of its international ambitions. But Klopp, now a global football director at Red Bull, insists: he feels no lack. “I have nothing to regret, I have nothing to prove”, he lets go. A sentence heavy with meaning, when we know the national pressure in Germany and the expectation of the public around his possible appointment.
Klopp declined the dream of an entire nation
While many renowned coaches would have given in to the call of the selection, Klopp preferred to remain faithful to his commitments. A form of rare coherence in modern football, and more proof of its attachment to the concept of full cycle.
At 57, Klopp seems to have turned the bench page. But with him, nothing is ever definitively closed. What if this refusal finally said more about his ethics than on his projects?
