By HARRY BAMFORTH, LIVE SPORTS COVERAGE REPORTER
Published: 12:21 EST, 16 December 2025 | Updated: 12:43 EST, 16 December 2025
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed his 'Mount Rushmore of football managers', leaving himself off the list.
Taking to Instagram, Klopp, 58, opted to tackle the 'really difficult' task of selecting the four most legendary managers of all time.
The German coach, who is currently Global Head of Soccer at Red Bull after leaving the Reds in 2024, started strongly with two former Barcelona managers who helped shape the way football is played in the modern era.
'This is my Mount Rushmore of football coaches and actually four is really difficult to do, but I try anyway,' Klopp started. 'Johan Cruyff, [the] most influential football coach I have ever heard of. The way he saw football, the way he understood football, is just second to none.
'Pep Guardiola, you could say exactly the same about him, and I faced him and know how difficult it was.'
Klopp and Guardiola endured a near-decade-long rivalry that spanned both Germany and England as the pair battled for the highest honours in their respective leagues and Europe.
Jurgen Klopp (right) has named former rival Pep Guardiola (left) in his 'Mount Rushmore of managers'
The German boss edged Guardiola in terms of wins, beating both Bayern Munich and Manchester City a total of 11 times combined, while the Spaniard was in charge, losing 10 times, the most he has ever lost to an opposition boss.
However, in terms of titles, it was Guardiola who came out on top, winning six Premier League titles to Klopp's solitary triumph, despite the historic title races they were embroiled in.
Klopp's third selection for his Mount Rushmore is a man who knocked his former club off their perch, before the German launched them back up there in 2020.
'Now it gets really tricky,' Klopp added. 'Let's go to the most successful [manager of all time] and a guy I really like as well, Sir Alex Ferguson.'
His final pick was much harder to come by, however, as he debated among three greats of the game, including two legendary Liverpool managers who preceded him.
In the end, though, it was the man who created the Reds dynasty in the 1960s who got the nod.
'And now I barely can decide. Carlo Ancelotti is in my mind, obviously. Bill Shakley, Bob Paisley, I heard so much about them, never saw them.
'But yes, I want to see Bill Shankly on the Mount Rushmore. That's it.'
Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger were two notable omissions from Klopp's list
It means that Klopp has missed out on some notable coaches, including Franz Beckenbauer, whom he himself has deemed 'the most influential person in football' Germany has ever had.
While Beckenbauer may not have made Klopp's list, the former Liverpool boss is a big admirer of what the lasting impact the German legend had on the sport as both a coach and a player
Speaking following Beckenbauer's death, Klopp said: 'He was not only the best player we ever had, he probably was the most influential person in football we ever had and he used that for the best things.
'So, how I said, I don’t want to sound like a broken record but the world will be really a different place without him, at least for me.'
Former Premier League managers, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger, who secured top-flight glory in England six times between them, striking omissions.