"The pressure was ridiculous": Jürgen Klopp causes a stir with a surprising confession

"Every time I sat on the bus on the way to the stadium, my chest would tighten. I sat there at least 1,081 times," said Klopp. "The pressure I put myself under was ridiculous. It was through the roof. I did it 1,081 times, so why should I do it 1,090 times?"

He is therefore not currently aiming for a return to the touchline, partly because he much prefers his new job as Head of Global Soccer at Red Bull: "I work a lot and I want to work. The difference is that now I can work for three days and then have four days where I do nothing. I’ve never had it better. I wasn’t born to not work. But I had to find a way to get something else out of life."

Klopp stepped down as Liverpool FC’s head coach in the summer of 2024 after nine years in the role and subsequently joined Red Bull in January 2025. Prior to that, the German had also managed 1. FSV Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund, winning the German league title twice with BVB, among other honours.

Despite his great successes, however, the 58-year-old never saw himself as a great coach: “I never did, and that’s the truth. I had so much to do every day, so many questions in my head, and I didn’t always know what to do,” said Klopp.

It was only when comparisons with other coaching greats such as Pep Guardiola became increasingly frequent that Klopp managed to accept his role: “I understood that, but it never really sank in. Now I’m no longer a manager and wow, I was really good. But I don’t miss anything.”