Jurgen Klopp will have raised more than a few eyebrows after opting to take a job at Red Bull.
The German cut short a well-deserved break from football following his nine-year tenure at Liverpool Football Club, agreeing to become the energy drink company’s Global Head of Soccer.
It’s fair to say the news wasn’t well-received by fans of former club Borussia Dortmund who compete with RB Leipzig in Germany’s Bundesliga.
Nonetheless, it appears to be a role that suits the manager’s post-Anfield life.
Red Bull update: Jurgen Klopp has made the best decision for him
It’s not nice to hear for a certain section of football fans, but ultimately Jurgen Klopp has decided, for once, to look after his own best interests.
After a very public admission of exhaustion at Liverpool, you can forgive the 57-year-old for taking the less gruelling option with Red Bull.
It’s an opportunity that keeps the former Mainz head coach involved in football without the draining day-to-day demands of being a manager. A win-win for all involved.
Now Sky’s Florian Plettenberg reports on X (formerly Twitter) that Red Bull will be looking to make their new executive’s life a little easier by reducing his travel during the 2024/25 season.
At this stage, Jürgen #Klopp is planning that he might not appear in any stadium until the end of the current 2024/2025 season
In the first few months of his tenure starting in January 2025, he intends to work in the background and will be traveling a lot, getting a feel… pic.twitter.com/TVQjuDiTCk
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) October 13, 2024
For context: Why are Borussia Dortmund fans angry with Jurgen Klopp?
We don’t want to be entirely dismissive of fan concerns around Klopp picking up this new role with Red Bull.
Within German football, it’s heavily contextualised by the rise of Leipzig to the top-flight and allegations of the club corrupting the spirit of the ’50+1′ rule (‘clubs must hold a majority of their own voting rights’).
The project at RB Leipzig was seen as being anything over than fan-centric and thus far removed from the principles and values that govern the existence of clubs in Germany.
Stories of manufactured success and glory are certainly familiar to fans in England, so we can absolutely appreciate why emotions are running high around what may be perceived as a slight betrayal from one of football’s newest godfathers.
