Jurgen Klopp
German Football Coach
Jurgen Klopp is a German football coach who is currently in charge of Premier League club Liverpool FC.
Jurgen Klopp
• Date of birth: 16 June 1967
• Age: 55 years old
• Place of birth: Stuttgart, Germany
• Nationality: German
• Wife: Ulla Sandrock
• Height: 191cm / 6ft 3ins
• Weight: 83kg / 183lbs
• Salary: £16m per year
• Net Worth: £21m (approx)
Klopp spent the majority of his playing career at Mainz between 1990 and 2001 before he retired to begin coaching.
Jurgen took over the reins at Mainz on 27 February 2001 and he led the German club to a 1-0 win in his first game in charge.
The German coach led Mainz into the Bundesliga for the first time and secured Uefa Cup football before their relegation in 2007.
Klopp took over the reins at Borussia Dortmund in May 2008 but didn’t win his first Bundesliga title until 2011.
With Dortmund, he won two German top flight titles, the German Cup, two German Super Cups and finished as a Champions League runner-up in 2013.
Jurgen stood down at the end of the 2014-15 season before he was appointed as the new Liverpool FC manager in October 2015.
Klopp guided Liverpool FC to the Champions League title in 2018-19, before the Reds won their first ever Premier League title under the German in 2019-20.
Playing Career
Jurgen spent short spells at Eintracht Frankfurt II, Viktoria Sindlingen and Rot-Weiss Frankfurt before he moved to Mainz in 1990.
Klopp started his career as a striker but developed into a defender as he became more experienced. He scored 52 goals in 325 games in all competitions during his 11-year stint at Mainz.
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
Mainz
Jurgen was handed his first managerial role at the age of 33 at Mainz.
Klopp led Mainz to a 1-0 win over MSV Duisberg in his first game in charge to make a winning start to his life as a coach.
Jurgen earned plenty of plaudits after he helped Mainz to avoid relegation to the third tier of German football.
Fresh from inking a permanent deal, he improved Mainz but the Klopp’s side missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga in 2002 and 2003.
However, Mainz finally secured promotion to the top flight at the end of the 2003-04 and Jurgen managed to keep the club in the top flight until 2007. Klopp also led Mainz to Uefa Cup qualification in 2005-06.
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
Borussia Dortmund
Jurgen took over the reins at Borussia Dortmund in May 2008.
Klopp made a solid start to his Dortmund managerial career after he led BVB to sixth spot in the 2008-09 season before Borussia ended up with a fifth-placed finish in 2009-10.
Dortmund beat Bayern Munich in the German Super Cup to win his first piece of silverware in 2008.
Klopp led Borussia Dortmund to the Bundesliga title in 2010-11 as they finished seven points ahead of their closest rivals Bayer Leverkusen.
BVB followed up that title win in the 2010-11 season by completing the double after ending up eight points ahead of Bayern Munich.
Dortmund were 5-2 winners against Bayern Munich in the German Cup final as Klopp helped Borussia to win their first double in their history.
Jurgen reached his first Champions League final in 2013. However, Dortmund lost 2-1 to their bitter rivals Bayern Munich at Wembley.
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
Klopp saw stars Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski move to Bayern in his final seasons in charge.
His final game in charge saw the Westfalenstadion outfit lost 3-1 to Wolfsburg in the German Cup final.
He finished his spell at Dortmund with a record of 179 wins, 69 draws, and 70 losses.
Liverpool FC
Klopp was confirmed as the new Liverpool FC manager on 8 October 2015.
The German head coach put pen to paper on an initial three-year contract after he replaced Brendan Rodgers at the Anfield outfit.
In his first Liverpool FC news conference, Klopp dubbed himself “the normal one” in reference to Jose Mourinho, who had famously called himself “the special one” during his first spell at Chelsea FC.
Klopp led Liverpool FC to a goalless draw at Tottenham Hotspur in his first Premier League game in charge.
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
He masterminded impressive victories at Chelsea FC and Manchester City to show Liverpool FC’s potential under the German head coach.
Liverpool FC lost on penalties to Manchester City in the League Cup final at Wembley in his first cup final in February 2016.
Klopp’s team came from 3-1 down to beat his former club Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League quarter-finals.
The Reds reached the Europa League final that season but the Reds lost 3-1 to Sevilla in the final in Basel in May 2016.
Liverpool FC finished in eighth place in the Premier League table at the end of the 2015-16 season.
Klopp signed seven players in the 2016 summer transfer window in a bid to overhaul his squad ahead of the new campaign.
He also signed a new six-year deal in July 2016 to extend his stay until 2022.
The German head coach led Liverpool FC to a fourth-place finish thanks to a 3-0 win over Middlesbrough on the final day of the 2016-17 season. The Reds were in second place in the Premier League on New Year’s Eve but injuries hampered their progress.
Liverpool FC boss Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
Klopp signed Mohamed Salah and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in a £40m deals in the 2018 summer transfer window. He smashed the club’s record transfer fee when Liverpool FC completed a £75m deal to land Virgil van Dijk from Southampton in January 2018.
Jurgen was praised for Liverpool FC’s attacking brand of football after the Reds scored 17 times in victories over FC Porto, Manchester City and AS Roma in the Champions League knockout stage.
Klopp’s side lost 3-1 to 13-time winners Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Kiev on May 26 2018.
Liverpool FC finished in the top four in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2009.
Klopp guided Liverpool FC to the Champions League title in 2018-19, with his side triumphing 2-0 over Premier League rivals Tottenham in the final.
The Reds continued their progress the following year, with Liverpool FC claiming their first-ever Premier League title in the 2019-20 season, a campaign which was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Managerial Honours
Mainz
• 2. Bundesliga promotion: 2003–04
Borussia Dortmund
• Bundesliga: 2010–11, 2011–12
• DFB-Pokal: 2011–12
• DFL-Supercup: 2013, 2014
• Champions League runner-up: 2012–13
Liverpool FC
• League Cup runner-up: 2015–16
• Europa League runner-up: 2015–16
• Champions League runner-up: 2017-18
• Champions League: 2018–19
• Uefa Super Cup: 2019
• Fifa Club World Cup: 2019
• Premier League: 2019-20
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
Personal Life And Net Worth
Jurgen Klopp has been married to his wife Ulla Sandrock since December 2005. The couple both have children from previous marriages.
Klopp has a diploma in sports science at the Goethe University of Frankfurt (MSc equivalent).
Although there is no official figure available for Klopp’s net worth, it has been estimated to stand at around £21m as of 2021 by Financial magazine Spear’s.
Klopp is understood to earn around £16m per year as Liverpool FC boss, according to reports in the British media in 2021.
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: The Sport Review)
Best Jurgen Klopp Quotes
On his playing days…
“I had the talent for the fifth division and the mind for the Bundesliga. The result was a career in the second division.”
On Mats Hummels’ continuous injury problems at Dortmund…
“We will wait for him like a good wife waiting for her husband who is in jail.”
On winning at Bayern Munich for the first time with Dortmund…
“When Dortmund last won here 19 years ago, most of my players were still being breast-fed. We have a bow and arrow and if we aim well, we can hit the target. The problem is that Bayern has a bazooka. But then apparently Robin Hood was quite successful.”
On creating a style of football at Borussia Dortmund…
“The fans should not only recognise us by our black and yellow jerseys. Even if we play in red, everyone in the stadium should think: ‘Whoa, that can only be BVB.’”
On his hair transplant…
“Yes, it’s true. I underwent a hair transplant. And I think the results are really cool, don’t you?”
Following a 3-0 Liverpool FC win over Manchester City in March 2016…
“The best word I can say to describe this is: Boom!”
Post-match television interview after winning the Champions League with Liverpool FC in June 2019…
“Let’s talk about six, baby, let’s talk about you and me, let’s talk about all the good things and all the bad things there may be.”
Jurgen Klopp (Photo: New Balance)
Jurgen Klopp – Did You Know?
• Klopp faced Liverpool FC as a manager even prior to Dortmund’s 4-0 friendly defeat at Anfield in 2014, having beaten the Reds 5-0 in another non-competitive tie in the summer of 2006 with Mainz. After the second encounter, he reportedly remarked: “Once, I won 5-0 against Liverpool in pre-season with Mainz and afterwards we got relegated. For me, it’s now standing 5-4.”
• Dortmund’s league win in 2011-12 saw them set a new Bundesliga record points total of 81, though this was beaten by Bayern Munich’s 91-point haul the following season under Jupp Heynckes.
• Klopp was regularly spotted walking home from Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion after games, and once explained that the journey gave him time to think about how his team had played.
• Jurgen has previously revealed that his favourite player was defender Karlheinz Forster, a two-time World Cup runner-up with West Germany.
