SHARE
COPY LINK

BRITAIN

Is Dortmund’s Klopp the next Liverpool manager?

Former Borussia Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp is looking increasingly like the frontrunner to take over at the English Premier League's FC Liverpool after the troubled club fired trainer Brendan Rogers.

Is Dortmund's Klopp the next Liverpool manager?
Jürgen Klopp. File photo: DPA

British media, including the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror, reported on Monday that 48-year-old Klopp was the favourite for the driver's seat at Anfield Road.

Liverpool bosses fired Rogers after a 1-1 draw with FC Everton on Sunday – although the Mirror reported that it was actually Klopp's expression of interest that triggered the move.

“The search for a new manager is underway,” was the only indication in a joint statement from the Liverpool FC owners on Sunday.

A decision is expected before Liverpool's next game in the Premier League against Tottenham on October 17th.

Jumping across the Channel and into the Premier League would be a surprise move for former BVB manager Klopp, who had said after stepping down earlier this year that he would take a year off from football.

Taking on the Liverpool job would make him the only German currently managing a Premier League team.

He'd be hoping to do better than the last of his countrymen to manage one of England's elite squads, Felix Magath, the former Mannschaft player and manager at Stuttgart, Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg who took over at Fulham in February 2014.

Magath was fired after just seven months following a run of eleven league games without a win.

But English commentators were confident Klopp would be far from that disastrous performance.

“It has to be Jürgen Klopp. He's the perfect man to take over from Brendan Rogers. He has the qualifications and, more important, he can give the fans back their belief in the team,” wrote Jan Molby in the Liverpool Echo.

“Klopp has an aura,” former England midfielder Jamie Redknapp wrote in the Daily Mail. “He's a bit mad but I like him and he'd be box office for the Premier League.

“There are good players in the squad and if someone comes in and really lifts them, there's every chance they could get [into the top four] again this season.”

Klopp is famed for his passion and enthusiasm. His one liners are legendary, as are his celebrations.

But English journalists might want to take his heart-on-the-sleeve style into consideration before they meet him. In 2014 he stormed out of an interview after a journalist suggested Dortmund's Champions League campaign was over following a 3-0 loss to Real Madrid.

On Twitter, commentators from England and Germany were excited by rumours of Klopp's arrival.

“I would find that so cool!” wrote one German BVB fan.

Referring to one of Klopp's famous caps with the word “Pöhler” (Ruhr region slang for street footballer), another fan suggested Klopp could combine an adopted club with his own language:

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FOOTBALL

Euro 2020: UEFA cancels Rome quarter final tickets sold to UK-based England fans

European football's governing body UEFA has cancelled all tickets sold to UK-resident England fans for the Euro 2020 quarter-final against Ukraine in Rome this weekend, amid concern some may travel to Italy despite Covid-19 quarantine rules.

Euro 2020: UEFA cancels Rome quarter final tickets sold to UK-based England fans
Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP

Since June 18th, all arrivals from the UK have had to quarantine for five days and take two coronavirus tests under Italian health restrictions.

To stop people from attempting to make the trip regardless, “a specific ticketing policy has been put in place” for Saturday’s last eight tie, the Italian interior ministry said in a statement.

READ ALSO: ‘No exceptions’: Italy and UK warn England fans against travel to Rome for Euro quarter final

UEFA, at the behest of Italian authorities, blocked the sale and transfer of tickets from Thursday night, and also cancelled tickets sold to UK residents from midnight on Monday.

The number of blocked or cancelled tickets was not given.

 England’s governing Football Association (FA) was entitled to a ticket allocation of 2,560, equating to 16 percent of the permitted capacity of 16,000 at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.

Andrea Costa, Italian undersecretary of state for health, repeated on Thursday that any person arriving from Britain would face five days of quarantine.

“That will not allow fans who have left over the last couple of days to come and see the match,” he told Radio Capital.

“We’ll be vigilant on this quarantine, we’re not talking about a big number so the checks will not be difficult.”

The English FA has said it was working with UEFA and the British embassy in Rome to “facilitate” ticket sales to England fans resident in Italy.

But the British Embassy in Rome confirmed to The Local that it “is not selling or distributing tickets for the match on Saturday in Rome”.

The confusion on Wednesday left Italy-based England fans scrambling to find out where they could buy tickets.

READ ALSO: Covid cases on the rise in Europe once again as WHO warns of Euro 2020 risk

British government advice is fans should not travel to Italy, an “amber list” country requiring 10 days of self-isolation upon return.

The UK is experiencing a surge in new coronavirus cases, blamed on the Delta variant that was first detected in India.

SHOW COMMENTS