Oliver Mintzlaff at the Grand Prix of Las Vegas in 2024
Oliver Mintzlaff has opened up on Red Bull's talks with Jurgen Klopp
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp first held talks with Red Bull more than two years before agreeing to become Global Head of Soccer for the Austrian company, according to one of his predecessors in the role.
Oliver Mintzlaff has held a number of roles with the company, which owns football clubs in countries including Austria and Germany. Mintzlaff served as RB Leipzig CEO as the team won promotion to the Bundesliga, also spending time in the Global Head of Soccer post himself, and now serves as CEO of corporate projects and new investments with Red Bull as a whole - working on the move to bring in Klopp.
Klopp will begin a new position with the company on January 1, nearly a year after he announced his Liverpool exit. The German spent just shy of nine years at Anfield before announcing in January 2024 that the 2023-24 season would be his last in the dugout.
On announcing his Anfield exit, the former Borussia Dortmund boss made it clear he would not take another managerial role any time soon, but his Red Bull move was announced in October. Now, Mintzlaff has claimed the move followed a lengthy pursuit, with initial enquiries taking place when the manager was still in charge at Liverpool.
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"It took a long time. It was a very, very long process," Mintzlaff is quoted as saying by BILD (via The Mail). "The first idea was more than two years ago, when I first spoke to Jurgen about it. He said: 'I think that's great, I think that's impressive.' Not just what's happening in football, but also the sports Red Bull is involved in, how much is being done for young talent.
"That always interested him and excited him. So we always kept in touch and I didn't let up. But at some point he told me that I was extending my stay in Liverpool and that was of course a disappointment for me because that little door was then closed.
"When he announced his departure, we met at his place in Liverpool a few months later and I started again with my topic and told him a lot of things, where I think we could use him and that it would be an exciting task for him. And then he said: 'All right, let's do it.' I had to slap myself in the face. Then he agreed and I quickly drew up the contracts.'"
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Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool at the end of the 2023-24 season
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Image:
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Mintzlaff described the negotiations as among the easiest he has ever conducted. Klopp has come in for some criticism in Germany after taking the job, but defended his decision.
“I certainly didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes," Klopp said on Toni and Felix Kroos' Einfach mal Luppen podcast. "And I personally love all my former clubs. I don’t know exactly what I could have done so that everyone would have been happy.
“It was always clear, well, it was clear to me, that I wasn’t going to do nothing at all. And that’s when the Red Bull story came up. So for me it’s outstanding I have to be honest.”
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