‘The end of coach Jurgen Klopp’: Liverpool manager admits he may not return to football after contract expires in 2024

Head coach will only return if he ‘misses football’ during his time off

Tom Kershaw
Tuesday 18 August 2020 06:53 EDT
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Jurgen Klopp on Liverpool's 'nearly perfect' season

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Louise Thomas

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Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he may not return to management after his Liverpool contract expires in 2024.

The German signed a new five-year contract last year but plans to take a sabbatical at its conclusion and will only return if he “misses football” during his time off.

“I’ll take a year off and ask myself if I miss football,” he said in an interview with Sportbuzzer. “If I say no, then that will be the end of coach Jurgen Klopp.

“If one day I am no longer a coach, there is one thing I will not miss: the brutal tension immediately before the game.”

Klopp, who joined Liverpool in 2015, followed Champions League victory in 2019 by ending the club’s 30-year title drought last season, cementing himself as one of Europe’s great modern managers.

Jurgen Klopp celebrates as Liverpool lift the Premier League following victory over Chelsea
Jurgen Klopp celebrates as Liverpool lift the Premier League following victory over Chelsea (Getty)

The squad are currently on a pre-season training camp in Austria, with Klopp determined that his players are “even better” than during last season’s dominant campaign.

“The whole club is hot for the new season, we want to be even better,” he said. “We want to chase the opponents and the ball over the entire field, continue to be a super unpleasant team that is not fun to play.

“We’re not defending any titles. We want to get new ones. We’ve only just started winning.”

Liverpool’s only signing of the transfer window thus far has ben Greek left-back Kostas Tsimikas, who joined from Olympiacos in an £11.75m deal.

The club are understood to be interested in Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara, however, the Reds are currently unwilling to meet the German champion’s €30m asking price for a player who has just one year remaining on his contract.

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