Jurgen Klopp has spoken openly about how he turned down a managerial approach at Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp during the LFC Foundation Ball at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. Picture date: Friday May 23, 2025. PA Photo. See PA story SOCCER Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp opened up about rejecting a job offer at Liverpool
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Jurgen Klopp once revealed he turned down an offer to leave Liverpool and manage the German national team in 2023. The Reds failed to qualify for the Champions League in the 2022/23 campaign, having settled for a Europa League spot after finishing fifth in the Premier League.
Speaking earlier this year, Liverpool’s legendary former manager Klopp admitted he needed a change at the time but felt like he couldn’t leave after such a disappointing season. The 58-year-old, who is now Head of Global Soccer for the Red Bull group, said he felt it was his duty to put things right at Anfield before leaving for other ventures.
Klopp told Welt: "The season before that [final one] didn't go so well for Liverpool - and in the summer after this season, Germany was looking for a new national coach. I could have said 'yes' because it might have been better to do something different.
"I didn't want to. And the decision was not about the job of the national coach itself. I couldn't leave Liverpool like that. There was a team, there were people with whom I had a relationship. I've never been so cold not to remember the good things I said to a player a week earlier.
"We had brought in new players like Endo, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister. With them and the core team, I wanted to fix it again. That was important to me. We managed to do that. Nevertheless, the decision to stop in Liverpool matured.”
He went on to shed light on how he finally left the club in 2024. The German shockingly announced in January that year that he would be leaving at the end of the season, citing fatigue as the main reason.
Klopp added: "I communicated this internally early on, until we went public in January, also at the request of the owners. You talk about a perfect handover, but there are others who say that perhaps Liverpool would have become champions if we had only made it public later. But for me it felt right, just like it did back then in Mainz and later in Dortmund."
Opening up on his decision to walk away from coaching after nearly 25 years, Klopp continued: "I don't want it anymore. I now have a job (as Red Bull's global head of soccer) that fulfils me and is also intense. I don't sleep longer in the morning and I don't go to bed later in the evening, but I can organise my work much better.
Jurgen Klopp manager of Liverpool walks his "Guard of Honour" at the end the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield on May 19, 2024 in Liverpool, England.
Klopp left Liverpool in 2024(Image: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
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"My wife, for example, is totally happy with it because we can plan things much better that we couldn't plan before. For me, it was never about not doing anything anymore, but about doing something else. I've coached 1081 games, and that's not including the friendly matches. If we add those from 23 years, we might come to 1200.
"Then the press conferences, the media appointments. I always just reacted. And in Liverpool there were also the tasks as manager. That was a lot, a lot.”
Despite his previous comments, Liverpool’s recent struggles have led to rumours that Klopp might make a return to Anfield in some capacity.
Liverpool's Dutch manager Arne Slot reacts during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on November 22, 2025.
Arne Slot is under pressure(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
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After a dream first season in which he won the Premier League, his successor Arne Slot has found out the hard way how difficult life in England’s top flight can quickly become. Despite splurging around £450million on fresh talent in the summer, Slot’s side suffered their sixth defeat in seven league games against Nottingham Forest at the weekend, losing 3-0 and now sitting in 12th place.
The pressure on Slot will only increase if results don’t improve quickly. And some would love Klopp to return to Liverpool if the managerial position ever becomes vacant.
Klopp, appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast recently, said some form of a comeback is ‘theoretically possible’, but it is unlikely that it would be a managerial role and it's still unlikely that there are any serious plans to sack Slot.
Liverpool next face PSV at home in the Champions League on Wednesday, followed by a trip to east London to play West Ham on Sunday in the league.
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