As Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp didn’t like long meetings. Rather than sitting around thinking about the latest big decision, he would regularly have important conversations in the training ground canteen while eating lunch.
Klopp was anything but formal, but Mike Gordon – the chairman of Liverpool owner Fenway Sports Group, a man who also operates with the kind of laid-back confidence you normally get from an internet entrepreneur – placed the German at same level as a business. chief. He was, according to Gordon, “someone you would choose to run your company,” as he told Raphael Honigstein in his book Bring the Noise.
Klopp’s new role as global head of football at Red Bull, which he will take up early next year, potentially offers that kind of global responsibility. “philosophy” runs through each of his interests.
The decision, which came suddenly – nine years and a day since he arrived at Liverpool – might, at first glance, be surprising, given how exhausted Klopp looked when he left Anfield in May. At the time, he said he was running out of energy and needed complete rest from football management.
Jurgen Klopp receives a guard of honor after his final match for Liverpool (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
He left Borussia Dortmund with a similar message at the end of the 2014-15 season, before quickly arriving on Merseyside after a summer largely spent playing tennis.
Klopp struggles to sit still for any length of time, but his new job at Red Bull invites him to return more slowly and less stressfully to the game he loves – and, in all likelihood, a precursor to the job he has in the German national team. long coveted, given reports in the country suggest an exit clause exists in his contract.
Gordon’s comments about Klopp’s abilities were made in 2017 and in the years since, as Liverpool have become increasingly successful, his power has grown. With this, the support network that had also contributed to Liverpool’s rise was dismantled. Klopp didn’t manage Liverpool because the most important financial decisions were always made by Gordon. Yet he was the public face of a multinational company and the football department was becoming his own. This explains why Liverpool now employ a head coach rather than a manager and the club’s sporting director leads strategic and personnel decisions. It would be good to hear Klopp tell him if he thinks taking on too much has contributed to his burnout.
Maybe the gig at Red Bull gives him the opportunity to understand a world that interests him. Last year there was talk of him enrolling in a sports management course, which his representatives have neither confirmed nor denied. Unlike Liverpool, he will be able to do his job without the pressure of team preparation, matches and press conferences. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, he said the treadmill has kept him from learning as much as he would like. From there, if he ends up taking over the leadership of Germany, he will surely better understand the responsibilities that come with different leadership positions.
Klopp is not the first former Liverpool manager to win this particular title at Red Bull. In 2012, after Gérard Houllier was forced to retire due to health problems, he met the company’s founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, who had shown up to a meeting in Austria on a motorbike and in jeans.
Houllier’s influence depends largely on the impression of the person you’re talking to. While he would later claim that he played a leading role in the organization’s attempt to integrate Sadio Mané from Metz in 2012, those closest to his candidacy suggest that his responsibilities were closer to those of an ambassador: traveling to different countries, shaking hands with partners, and sometimes whispering advice.
Will Klopp’s tasks be as global as they seem? It’s certainly helpful to the Red Bull brand, which has needed a bit of legitimacy since it began investing in football in 2005.
Houllier had been away from Liverpool for eight years at the start of his involvement, when the Red Bull outfit had yet to produce a team talented enough to qualify for the Champions League group stage. Although his club Leipzig has since qualified for this round of the competition in seven of the last eight seasons, the story of a team emerging from the regional divisions has not exactly been received with encouragement in Germany, where the rules are stricter. The favor of fan representation and significant outside investment is treated with suspicion.
Dortmund fans demonstrate before a match against RB Leipzig in 2017 (TF-Images/TF-Images via Getty Images)
At Dortmund and Liverpool, Klopp exploited the authenticity of each club’s supporters, sometimes preying on the artificial elements of rivals and other places. Had he been in charge of Dortmund in 2016 when they faced newly promoted RB Leipzig for the first time in the Bundesliga, it would have been interesting to hear his thoughts on the actions of Dortmund fans who boycotted the match in protest against their opponents. ‘property model.
“Dortmund makes money, but we do it to play football,” Jan-Henrik Gruszecki, one of the protest organizers, told the Guardian. “But Leipzig plays football to sell a product and a lifestyle. That’s the difference.
So Klopp may have tainted his reputation by aligning himself with the soft drink maker – the antithesis of what he once stood for. Perhaps this will be determined, especially in Germany, by his visibility while on duty with Red Bull.
Klopp will be removed from daily training at Red Bull (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Back in England, the company owns a minority stake in Leeds United, having taken over as the club’s shirt sponsor. “The ambition to return Leeds United to the Premier League and establish themselves in the best football league in the world suits Red Bull very well,” Oliver Mintzlaff said in May. Mintzlaff, CEO of Red Bull’s corporate projects, played an important role in Klopp’s appointment.
Klopp suggested upon his exit from Liverpool the same month that he would never manage another Premier League club. But it’s not too hard to imagine Leeds back in the top flight soon, and if that happens – and Red Bull provide technical support, as expected – it will be fascinating to see where Klopp, if he remains at this position, fits. “Could he end up helping to plan, even in a small way, Liverpool’s match-day downfall?
GO DEEPER
Marathe Exclusive: “This club won’t become Leeds Red Bulls – they understand that”
Immediately, many laughed at the idea that one of his first tasks might involve sacking Pep Lijnders, his former assistant at Liverpool, whose Red Bull Salzburg team were beaten by Brest and Sturm Graz in matches successive last week.
There are no plans to dismiss the Dutch coach, but Klopp will not officially start with Red Bull until January. Given their proximity to Liverpool, with Lijnders tasked with leading training sessions, it seems unthinkable that Klopp, if asked, would suggest making a change. Instead, Klopp’s arrival in the Red Bull team surely increases his chances of survival.
For the moment, Klopp is removed from the daily grind of management, with the role appearing to strike a sensible balance between involving the elite through a new challenge, but without the pressure and control that comes from being a manager . . It remains to be seen whether Klopp will be able to sustainably resist the latter’s buzz.
(Top photos: Getty Images)