"Marco can have any job and could do any job too," Jurgen Klopp said of his former player, Marco Rose, back in 2019.
At that time, Leipzig-born coach Rose was in charge at Red Bull Salzburg, having led them to back-to-back Austrian Bundesliga titles as well as a domestic double.
Fast-forward two years and Rose is now set to take on a new job, one which was previously held by his coaching mentor.
After leaving Salzburg in the summer of 2019, Rose was appointed head coach at Borussia Monchengladbach, whom he has led to the last 16 of the Champions League as they prepare to take on Manchester City on Wednesday.
He already has his next position lined up, however, after it was confirmed earlier this month that he will be the new Borussia Dortmund boss for the 2021-22 season and beyond.
Since Klopp left Dortmund in 2015, they have won the DFB-Pokal just once and finished runners-up to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga three times, failing to build on the success the now-Liverpool boss had in North-Rhine Westphalia.
Rose will be the sixth different manager in the hot seat at Signal Iduna Park since Klopp's departure, but provides the best chance of replicating the sort of football that made Klopp an international star having learned under him as a player with Mainz.
Signed initially on loan from Hannover, where he had played under German coaching legend Ralf Rangnick, Rose helped Mainz win promotion to the Bundesliga in 2002, causing Klopp to sign him on a permanent deal.
The defender played with the Zero-Fivers until 2010, when he hung up his boots and was appointed as assistant coach.
From there he went onto become head coach at his former club Lokomotive Leipzig, but despite helping them avoid relegation, his stay in his hometown ended after just one season as Red Bull Salzburg came calling with a career path laid out for him.
GoalInitially, Rose dropped down the age groups to start this new trajectory, taking over Salzburg's Under-16 side, with the 'godfather of gegenpressing' Rangnick overseeing his progress up the age groups in Austria from his role as the Red Bull group's head of sport and development.
Rose and Salzburg stunned Europe by winning the UEFA Youth League in 2017, beating a Manchester City side that included the likes of Jadon Sancho and Brahim Diaz, as well as knocking out Atletico Madrid and Barcelona en route to the final.
That gave him the chance to step up to manage the senior side, winning 37 of his first 50 league games in charge - an Austrian Bundesliga record.
More impressively, the Red Bulls marched all the way to the Europa League semi-finals, shocking Dortmund in the knockout stage.
After winning the league and cup in the following campaign, it seemed impossible for Salzburg to keep him, with Klopp predicting bigger and better things for his protege.
"I trust Marco in everything," Klopp told Sky Sports Austria as Salzburg closed in on a domestic double in 2019. "Marco can have any job and could do any job too, he is really the most hyped coach of all at the moment, everyone is asking about him."
Rose's coaching talent was undeniable, and it was no surprise when a club of Gladbach's standing came calling.
The only surprise was the fact that the German side hired him to replace Dieter Hecking, who had guided Gladbach to an impressive fifth-placed finish in the Bundesliga.
However, the club's sporting director, Max Eberl, was not willing to miss his chance of appointing Rose, with Hoffenheim, Schalke and Wolfsburg also interested.
"We do our coaching scouting very intensively and therefore had Marco in our sights for a long time," Eberl told Goal.
Goal"As sporting director you rarely have the chance to get the coach you want. In probably 90 per cent of cases, you choose the one on the market that seems to suit you best after you have dismissed a coach. But you rarely get the solution you want.
"If Marco hadn't been on the market or had rejected us, it would have been logical for Dieter to continue sitting on our bench."
The appointment proved an inspired one for Eberl, as Rose secured a top-four finish in his first season in charge and before plotting his way through a Champions League group that included Real Madrid, Inter and Shakhtar Donetsk.
The Foals have also beaten Bayern Munich, Dortmund and RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga this season, though inconsistent results mean they currently sit eighth in the table, nine points adrift of a top-four spot.
The football on display, however, has been much more enthralling under Rose than it had been under the results-focused Hecking. That is something that has been missing at Dortmund in recent years, and part of why they wanted the master tactician to take the reins next season following the sacking of Lucien Favre.
News of Rose's exit has disappointed and angered Gladbach's fans, with the 44-year-old taking advantage of a clause in his contract to join a bigger club.
Rose is aware that fans are annoyed at him for joining a rival, but believes that a lot of the anger is due to the success he has had in less than two seasons at the club.
"It has something to do with the fact that we've progressed a lot here in the last year and a half, and a lot of people just feel that we're not actually at the end yet," Rose told Goal and DAZN.
The club's supporter group backs up Rose's claim, believing that the young coach had given the team and the fans belief in something bigger and better.
"Marco, we would have built you a statue at the end of your time with us," they wrote. "The values, the passion and the will to win which you transmit to our team strike a chord with us and make us dream."
He has not arrived yet, but Dortmund fans are already dreaming about their new chapter under their new Klopp.