Is J\u00fcrgen Klopp retired? That very question was posed to the man himself back in January 2025, a year after he sensationally announced his intention to step down as Liverpool manager following a glittering nine-year career at Anfield.<\/p>\n
“Obviously not,” Klopp answered, his response clipped up in a video shared with his 6 million followers on Instagram. “I’m not a football manager anymore. I’m now head of global football at Red Bull. So, not retired, just changed job.”<\/p>\n
However, fast forward to the present day, and Klopp is ready to once again don his famous baseball cap and return to the dugout, having been officially announced on Friday as the new Germany national team manager on a four-year contract, taking him through to the 2030 World Cup.<\/p>\n
While Klopp, 59, has been linked with an array of coaching jobs over the course of his two-year hiatus — notably to become Real Madrid boss this summer — it has long seemed that taking over his native Germany was the only role that could lure him out of his semi-retirement at Red Bull.<\/p>\n
Germany’s chronic underperformance at major tournaments since their 2014 World Cup triumph in Brazil meant there was always likely to be pressure on manager Julian Nagelsmann and his team this summer. Their shocking penalty shootout exit at the hands of Paraguay in the round of 32 quickly made Nagelsmann’s position untenable, and for almost everyone affiliated with the German team, there was only one candidate qualified to be his successor.<\/p>\n
That Klopp was afforded a front-row seat to his country’s latest World Cup disappointment — he worked as a pundit for German broadcaster MagentaTV — only served to make the furor surrounding his potential appointment more acute.<\/p>\n
“About two years ago I stopped at Liverpool and said I lacked the energy for another job or for another year with Liverpool,” Klopp said on air earlier this month. “Since then I’m more than recharged, I’m ready.”<\/p>\n
It was an admission that will have been music to the ears of many fans listening back in his homeland after yet another underwhelming tournament. But, after two years out of the game, is Klopp the right man for the job?<\/p>\n
And, perhaps more importantly, is this job right for him?
\nIs Germany the right job for Klopp?<\/p>\n
There have been few bigger winners at this summer’s World Cup than Klopp. While the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Jude Bellingham have thrilled supporters on the pitch, Klopp has kept them entertained off it, cutting a relaxed but engaging figure during his punditry work and starring in TV commercials for major brands such as Budweiser and Trivago.<\/p>\n
From catching up with onetime Liverpool target Mbapp\u00e9 to strutting around the streets of Dallas in a cowboy hat with Germany legend Thomas M\u00fcller, barely a day passed at the tournament without the advent of a new viral clip to reinforce Klopp’s status as one of the sport’s most universally beloved figures.<\/p>\n
Certainly, the former Borussia Dortmund boss looks in much better spirits than he did during the final months of his tenure at Liverpool when he famously admitted he was “running out of energy” to continue managing at the elite level.<\/p>\n
“I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again,” Klopp said in an address to Liverpool fans in January 2024. “After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth — and that is the truth.”<\/p>\n
True to his word, Klopp has — up until now — shunned overtures from interested clubs in favor of spending more time with his family. His role at Red Bull has ostensibly seen him become the face of the energy drink brand’s soccer operation while also allowing for a separation from the day-to-day machinations of club management.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Klopp’s foray into the world of social media has allowed fans to keep up to date with his freewheeling exploits, from time on the padel court to what he described as a “bucket list” trip to the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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