Liverpool football club officially won the English Premier League for the first time in 30 years on Thursday, 25 June 2020, and the manager who helped the team to achieve this history is none other than Jurgen Klopp.
Long before the coronavirus pandemic halted Premier League football on March 13, pundits and most football fans across the world had already given the title to Liverpool. The club went into the coronavirus break with 25 points lead ahead of their major rivals in the last two seasons, Manchester United. Hence, all the club needed to do after the return of the league was to win two matches out of the 9 remaining matches to be crowned the champions.
Unfortunately for Jurgen Klopp and his boys, they drew their first match against Everton and won their second match against Crystal Palace, meaning that they would have to wait a bit longer if Manchester City didn’t lose or draw any match until they meet on Thursday, 2 July 2020.
Manchester City was not looking like a team that would lose any match after beating Arsenal 3-0 on the 17th of June and then bashing Burnley 5-0 five days later. However, the Chelsea football club they defeated 2-1 on 23 November 2019, was the same club that stopped the club from keeping Liverpool waiting. Frank Lampard’s boys went passed Pep Guardiola’s boys 2-1 on Thursday to officially confirm Liverpool the champions of the 2019-2020 Premier League season with a whopping 86 points and 7 games left to play.
Klopp’s Reaction…
“I couldn’t be more proud of the boys”, Jurgen Club told Liverpool TV on Thursday night after Chelsea V Manchester City match. “How we watched the game tonight together, we knew it could happen, it couldn’t happen, we didn’t know.
“We want to play football and we are really happy that we are allowed to play again – then when it happened at that moment, it was a pure explosion. When we counted down the last five seconds of the game, the ref counted down a little bit longer than us so we had to look at two or three more passes! Then it was pure… I cannot describe it. It was a really, really nice moment.
“Directly after it, I felt so empty inside – I cannot believe it, I am really not happy with myself at the moment that I feel like I feel, but it’s just a little bit too much at the moment. I will be fine, nobody has to worry. I actually couldn’t be happier; I couldn’t have dreamed of something like that and I never did before last year, honestly.
“We were not close enough three years ago, a year ago we were really close… what the boys have done in the last two-and-a-half years, the consistency they show is absolutely incredible and second to none. Honestly, I have no idea how we do that all the time.
“Last night, a very good example – we played a game like a stadium is fully packed and everybody is shouting ‘Liverpool’ or whatever constantly. It is a wonderful moment, that’s what I can say.”
The win has taken Liverpool’s major title wins to 49, keeping them on the list of one of the most successful clubs in Europe and the second most successful club in the United Kingdom, behind Manchester United in terms of a number of titles won (66).
Jurgen Klopp Trophies
In his eighteen years of coaching, the 53-year-old German tactician has won all the major titles in club football that he couldn’t dream of while playing for German Bundesliga side FSV Mainz 1990-2001. So far, he has won 9 major titles as a manager of Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
Borussia Dortmund
Bundesliga: 2010–11, 2011–12
DFB-Pokal: 2011–12
DFL-Supercup: 2013, 2014
Liverpool
Premier League: 2019–20
UEFA Champions League: 2018–19
UEFA Super Cup: 2019
FIFA Club World Cup: 2019
Jurgen Klopp Salary
Jurgen Klopp joined Liverpool from Borussia Dortmund in 2015 where he was earning about £4 million per year. When he came to the Premier League, he was reportedly earning £8 million per year.
However, after winning the UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World and UEFA Super Cup for Liverpool which earned him World best coach of the year award, the German tactician signed an improved contract with Liverpool in December 2019. The improved contract will keep him at the club until the end of 2023-2024 season. Based on the improved contract, the manager reportedly earns £10 million per year as a basic salary.
Jurgen Klopp Net Worth
There is no official estimate of how much Jurgen Klopp worth but based on thorough research which brought up conflicting figures, it will be safe to approximate that the 53-year-old coach is worth £44 million.
He makes his money mostly from football, personal investments and endorsement deals. He currently has endorsement deals with New Balance, the company that manufactures Liverpool’s kits.
Besides that, Klopp’s popularity is used in advertisements by Puma, Opel and the German cooperative banking group Volksbanken-Raiffeisenbanken. He is an ambassador for the German anti-racism campaign “Respekt! Kein Platz für Rassismus” (“Respect! No room for racism”). He is also earning from electronics giants Philips and TV network Sky Deutschland.
Jurgen Klopp Facts
Below are 7 interesting facts about Jurgen Klopp:
- Jurgen Klopp had never played for a club outside Germany
The German tactician spent all his football career playing in the Bundesliga. The biggest German Bundesliga club he played for was Mainz 05 (1990-2001).
- Jurgen Klopp started coaching less than a season after he retired from playing football.
Immediately Klopp retired from football in 2001 while playing for Mainz, he became the club’s manager in the same year. He helped the club to gain promotion in 2004.
- Klopp has taken a club down to relegation
Despite how good Klopp has become, he has struggled as a manager to the extent that he took Mainz from the Bundesliga to relegation in the 2006-2007 season. He failed to help the club to achieve promotion in 2007-2008 season, hence he had to resign in 2008.
- Jurgen Klopp has married twice, in the 80s and in 2005.
- Jurgen Klopp has lost 6 consecutive finals as a manager
While the manager of Borussia Dortmund, he lost the UEFA Champions League final to Bayern Munich in May 2013. In 2014, he lost to Bayern Munich again in the DFB Pokal final. In 2015, he lost the same competition to VFB Wolfsburg.
While at Liverpool, he lost the League Cup final in February 2016 to Manchester City on Penalties. In the same year, he lost the Europa League final to Sevilla. In 2018, Klopp led Liverpool to face Real Madrid in the Champions League final but couldn’t win it again. The losing streak broke in 2019 when they defeated Tottenham in the final of the same competition.
- He didn’t play for the German National team throughout his football career.
- He has worked as a football analyst and commentator
Klopp’s first job as an analyst came in 2005 when he worked as an expert commentator for German television network ZDF, with his focus majorly on the German National team. He also worked as an analyst during the 2006 World Cup, 2008 Euro, and 2010 World Cup.
Jurgen Klopp Teeth
Jurgen Klopp was known to be a famous smoker and his smoking habit badly changed his teeth colour to yellow. Even while he has joined the Premier League side, Liverpool, his teeth were obviously looking like white stuff that has been affected with some amount of smoke.
However, prior to the end of his first season in the Premier League, the Liverpool manager has been seen wearing a new set of teeth which he often flashes to the camera at will and in every given opportunity.
This has sparked the speculation that he has done a teeth replacement procedures which is popularly known as veneers fitting. He now has one of the best sets of teeth you can find in the Premier League.
Jurgen Klopp Wife and Family
Klopp was born on 16 June 1967 and got married in the 1980s to a woman identified as Sabine. They have a child together named Marc who was born in 1988. Marc has tried to be a football star but couldn’t go as far as his father as he ended at the amateur level of football in Germany.
Unfortunately for Marc, his father and mother had to break up their marriage vows in 2001 when he was just 13-year-old. He had to wait for 4 years before he got a step-mother.
Yes, Jurgen Klopp married his second wife, Ulla Sandrock, in 2005. She is a social worker and a children’s writer who has had a son, Dennis before she married Liverpool’s manager. Both lovers have not had any child together since then.
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