by Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who announced on Friday that he would be leaving the Premier League club at the end of the season, has received a lot of praise. Fans have praised him, rivals have acknowledged his achievements and clips of his trademark fist pumps have been posted online by the Premier League. But no act of tribute is likely to surpass the words of Margaret Aspinall, the Hillsborough campaigner. She said Klopp is not only a great manager, but “a great person, a great personality and a great humanitarian”.
Aspinall was speaking on the evening Klopp was awarded the freedom of the city of Liverpool in 2022. With the right to drive sheep through the streets and a duty to protect the city’s honour, Klopp said at the time that he was overwhelmed by the occasion. “We will not live here forever because at one point we will go back to Germany,” he said, “but we will [the key to the city]we’ll take care of him, we’ll take him everywhere we go because he’s just something special.”
Related: Jürgen Klopp to step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season
During an interview with the club to announce his departure, news that will no doubt shake the world of football, Klopp said winning Liverpool’s freedom is “one of the most special moments of my entire life”. As the 56-year-old told supporters he was “running out of energy” and could not do the job “over and over and over again”, it was clear that he will be a unique figure leaving the England game.
Despite describing himself at his first press conference as “the normal one”, mocking the bombastic styles of the “Special One” José Mourinho, Klopp proved he was anything but during his eight-and-a-half years on Merseyside. He won the Champions League in 2019, the Premier League title the following year and claimed seven major trophies in total. He revived a club that had long fallen from its perch at the top of English football. At the time of writing he has the highest win percentage of any Liverpool manager, more than Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley or Sir Kenny Dalglish. But the reason his decision to leave Liverpool surprised so many goes beyond football.
In an era where the Premier League has become one of the most popular entertainment products in the world, with the best talent both on the pitch and in the manager’s dugout, Klopp stood out. Maybe it’s the frame; at 6 feet 3 inches and broad shoulders, the German has the build of a brown bear. Perhaps it is the teeth, perfect and gleaming, as a result of expensive work with a famous dentist who also fixed the smile of his players. Also there is the lonely touching behavior and the celebrations (fist pump coordination with Kop head cheers). But ultimately the qualities that Aspinall observed are those that Klopp identified as different; he was not only an extraordinary trainer but he was seen as a compassionate man who understood and expressed the values of human decency.
In 2017, two years after his arrival at Anfield and before he was able to fully implement his ideals on the pitch, Klopp wrote a Christmas message to Liverpool supporters. He admitted that the club would like to win more but insisted that “in football, as in life, you can choose to be happy and enjoy great moments and great times together”. It was a distinct message from Klopp, live and play hard and with a smile. Two articles later and the Germans criticized the growing need for food banks in the city. “If this is the case in a country with wealth and resources like this country, it is unbelievable,” he said.
Klopp continued to speak out on a number of topics, often going against the wisdom of the times. In an interview with the Guardian, Klopp criticized the misinformation surrounding the Brexit campaign and called for a second referendum. “Let’s think about it again and vote again with the right information,” he said. In 2020, Klopp was vocal in his support for football’s inclusion of the Black Lives Matter movement. Calling the racial prejudice “so unbelievably dumb”, he said it was “very hard for me to even slightly understand how it can be like this. But this is the way it is and so we have to stand up, or we have to kneel – whatever we have to do, we will do it.”
Klopp can be irascible, obsessive, and reluctant to let go of grievances (a long-standing frustration with referee Paul Tierney led to him receiving a two-match ban last summer after questioning the official’s integrity). In these aspects it is not unlike many other managers and is in line with the modern game. But Klopp’s brilliance, energy and willingness to present himself as a human being first, as an elite coach second, impressed many. Filling the void left by his departure is a concern for more than one Liverpool Football Club.
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