"You've really picked a fine old bum": Jürgen Klopp and Thomas Müller exchange barbs over the final between Bayern Munich and BVB

"That’s the man who appointed the referee who handed Bayern the Champions League final in 2013," said Klopp, addressing Mats Hummels, who was also present and had been on the pitch for Borussia Dortmund at the time under the leadership of Red Bull’s current "Head of Global Soccer". 

As is well known, the German record champions emerged victorious 2-1 some 13 years ago, at the height of the rivalry between the two Bundesliga sides. According to Klopp – and in the eyes of many others – referee Nicola Rizzoli made a clear error of judgement. With the score at 1-0 to Munich, the Italian referee failed to send off FCB defender Dante – who had already been booked – after his foul on Marco Reus, which led to a penalty and the equaliser by BVB’s Ilkay Gündogan. 

Müller then slid in. “You don’t have to give it,” said the Bayern veteran, bringing Hummels in as a supporter: “Mats himself once told me that it was actually fine by him that the yellow stayed.” But the former centre-back, who wore the shirts of both Bayern and Dortmund during his career, let down the current Vancouver Whitecaps MLS player and explained with a smile: "From a defender’s point of view, I’d say you have to give a red card."

Müller, on the other hand, would have been more inclined to show a yellow card to his former team in a different incident, alluding to Franck Ribéry’s alleged action in the early stages of the match, when he had presumably deliberately struck Robert Lewandowski – who was also still at BVB at the time – with his elbow. “But that’s a matter of tact. We don’t want to ruin the final,” he said with a broad grin.

Klopp then recalled an encounter with Collina. As Collina walked through the tunnels of the legendary Wembley after the match, Klopp had called out to him: "'You’ve put a lovely bum in there'". Müller retorted with his usual quick wit: "No, no, his name was Rizzoli, not 'bum'." Klopp laughed and replied, almost incredulously: "He remembers referees."

Hummels added: “If they referee for you, you remember names, don’t you?” However, Müller had the last word before the topic was closed: “No, he was a very good referee of world-class standard.”

The trio are likely to provide further entertaining moments at the World Cup. The other Magenta experts are former international Tabea Kemme, Manuel Baum, Sebastian Kneißl and Tobias Schweinsteiger.

You can watch the exchange again in the video here.