Say it ain’t so, Jürgen. Say it ain’t so. Last January, Liverpool’s then manager Jürgen Klopp shocked football by releasing a video in which he announced he’d be headed for the Anfield exit door come season’s end. By way of explanation, Klopp revealed he was “running out of energy”, so in at least one way the surprise news that he will be taking on a new role as head of global soccer at Red Bull should come as no surprise. Sadly, in so many other ways the revelation that this affable, apparently grounded if occasionally grumpy German has turned out to be another corporate sell-out seems crushingly disappointing. “I know how much the Red Bull idea is criticised by traditionalists and I’m one of them too,” he chirped two years ago, back in the days when, as a former manager of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, he always seemed to convey the impression that he was a man of the people who intrinsically “got” football fandom and culture, and what they are all about.
Now it has been announced that, from 1 January, this particular traditionalist will be suckling hungrily on the Red Bull teat, gorging himself on the steady supply of euros and caffeine-suffused, sickly-sweet gloop that flow from it. Having apparently rid himself of potential distaste for a multi-club ownership model in which clubs like Austria Salzburg or SSV Markranstädt are bought up contrary to the wishes of their supporters and completely rebranded in order to increase awareness of Red Bull, Klopp is ostentatiously flicking Vs in the direction of fans who had previously held him in a higher regard. What’s more, he could scarcely seem more pleased about his new role as head of football at several of the most disliked, plastic clubs on the planet.
“After almost 25 years on the sideline, I could not be more excited to get involved in a project like this,” he cheered. “The role may have changed but my passion for football and the people who make the game what it is has not.” For “making the game” read: buying up teams’ licences, changing their colours and date of foundation, plastering them in Red Bull logos, contrary to the wishes of the fans. Clubs, that is, unlike Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, who have always considered themselves beneath such vulgarity and until now thought Klopp was on their side. And while their former deity made no effort to justify his volte face, he can expect to face questions as tricky as they are valid on 25 January, when he first sits down in front of reporters to discuss his new role.
In other news regarding his new gig, it has been reported that Klopp has a get-out clause that will allow him to apply for the Germany job once Julian Nagelsmann leaves, although given their well-documented social conscience and anger in the face of clubs taking sponsorship from firms or nation states they dislike, it remains to be seen whether or not fans will want him in the role. “Members of the media and fans are thinking that Klopp has destroyed his legacy,” sniffed German football hack Constantin Eckner, while Kicker referred to the 57-year-old taking on his role as a “dagger in the heart for football romantics”. Of course in the current area of state takeovers, ticket-price gouging, associated party transaction rules, the proliferation of gambling advertising, the never-ending shenanigans of Fifa and everything else that is wrong with the game, football romantics at the elite level of the sport are fast becoming an obsolete breed. Now it seems they’ve lost another man but if nothing else, the mental gymnastics performed by assorted Klopp cultists in order to justify his decision will make for an interesting and amusing read.
.jpg?quality=85&dpr=2&width=650&s=534a55cc843663af110205cbb9f55129)
Chelsea get their celebrations on. Photograph: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC/Getty Images
