Like Liverpoolmanager Jurgen Klopp did not like long meetings. Instead of sitting and pondering the last big decision, he regularly had important conversations in the training ground cafeteria while eating lunch.
Klopp wasn't formal, but Mike Gordon – chairman of Liverpool's owner Fenway Sports Group, a man who also operates with the casual confidence you usually get from an internet entrepreneur – put the German on the same level as the corporate leader. According to Gordon, it was “someone you would choose to run your company,” as he told Raphael Honigstein in his book Bring the Noise.
Klopp's new role as Red Bull's global head of football, which he begins early next year, potentially comes with this kind of overarching responsibility. As Red Bull explained in a statement, the day-to-day running of the five clubs it owns, sponsors or has a minority stake in will not involve him, but he will assist sporting directors, scouting departments and coaches, ensuring Red Bull's “philosophy” runs through each of them her interests.
The decision, which came suddenly – nine years and one day after his arrival at Liverpool – may be surprising at first glance, given how exhausted Klopp looked when he left Anfield in May. Then, he said he had run out of strength and needed a complete break from football management.
Jurgen Klopp receives a guard of honor after his last match against Liverpool (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
He left Borussia Dortmund with a similar message at the end of the 2014-15 season, before quickly landing on Merseyside after a summer spent mainly playing tennis.
Klopp finds it difficult to sit still for long periods of time, but his new job at Red Bull encourages a slower and less stressful route back to the game he loves – and is most likely a precursor to the Germany job he has given the long-coveted reports in the country suggest that there is a release clause in his contract.
Gordon commented on Klopp's capabilities in 2017, and in the following years, as Liverpool became more successful, his strength grew. Thus the support network that had also contributed to Liverpool's rise was dissolved. Klopp was not in charge of Liverpool because the major financial decisions were still made by Gordon, yet he was the public face of the international company and the football department became his. This explains why Liverpool now employ a head coach rather than a manager, with the club's sporting director making strategic and personnel decisions. It would be good to hear from Klopp whether he thinks taking on too many responsibilities has contributed to his burnout.
Perhaps his performance at Red Bull will give him a chance to understand the world that interests him. Last year, there was talk of him signing up for a sports director course, which his representatives neither confirmed nor denied. Unlike Liverpool, he will be able to do his job without the pressure of team preparation, matches and press conferences. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, he indicated that the track had prevented him from studying as much as he would like. If he takes over Germany from now on, he will certainly have a better understanding of the responsibilities that come with various leadership positions.
Klopp is not the first former Liverpool manager to win this particular title at Red Bull. In 2012, after Gerard Houllier was forced to retire due to deteriorating health, he met the company's founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who arrived at the meeting in Austria on a motorcycle wearing jeans.
How influential Houllier has become depends on the impression with which one speaks. Although he later claimed to have played a leading role in trying to bring Sadio Mane to its Metz team in 2012, people close to its leadership suggest his duties were more like those of an ambassador: appearing in various countries, shaking hands with partners and occasionally whispering advice .
Will Klopp's duties be as comprehensive as they might seem? It will certainly come in handy for the Red Bull brand, which has needed a bit of legitimacy since it started investing in football in 2005.
At the time of his partnership, Houllier had been away from Liverpool for eight years, while the Red Bull group had yet to produce a team talented enough to qualify for the group stage of the English League Cup. Champions League. Although his Leipzig club has since reached this round of the competition in seven of the last eight seasons, the story of a team emerging from regional leagues has not been met with enthusiasm in Germany, where rules are based on the favor of the national team and significant external investment is treated suspiciously.
Dortmund fans protest before the match against RB Leipzig in 2017. (TF-Images/TF-Images via Getty Images)
At Dortmund and Liverpool, Klopp exploited the authenticity of each club's fans, occasionally attacking the artificial elements of rivals and other venues. If he had been in charge of Dortmund in 2016, when the team faced recently promoted RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga for the first time, it would have been interesting to hear his thoughts on the actions of Dortmund fans who boycotted the match in protest at their opponents' ownership model.
“Dortmund makes money, but we do it to play football,” said Jan-Henrik Gruszecki, one of the organizers of the Guardian protest. “But Leipzig play football to sell a product and a lifestyle. That's the difference.”
Therefore, Klopp may have tarnished his reputation by aligning himself with the soda manufacturer – the opposite of what he once stood for. Perhaps this will be decided, especially in Germany, by his visibility during his Red Bull duties.
Klopp will be removed from day-to-day coaching at Red Bull (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Back in England, the company holds a minority stake in Leeds United, taking over as the club's shirt sponsor. “The ambition to take Leeds United back to the First Division and establish itself in the best football league in the world suits Red Bull very well,” Oliver Mintzlaff said in May. Mintzlaff, Red Bull's general manager of corporate projects, played a significant role in Klopp's appointment.
When Klopp left Liverpool the same month, he suggested he would never manage another Premier League club. However, it's not hard to imagine Leeds returning to the top flight soon, and if that happens – and Red Bull, as expected, provides its technical support – it will be fascinating to see where Klopp fits in if he remains in the job. could he finally help engineer, even if only in a small way, Liverpool's match-day collapse?
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Many immediately chuckled at the suggestion that one of his first tasks might be to sack Pep Lijnders, his former assistant at Liverpool, whose Red Bull Salzburg side were beaten in back-to-back games by Brest and Sturm Graz last week.
There is no plan to remove the Dutch coach, but Klopp will only officially start working with Red Bull in January. Given how close they were at Liverpool and Lijnders entrusted with leading training sessions, it seems inconceivable that Klopp, if asked, would suggest making a change. Instead, Klopp's arrival at Red Bull certainly increases the chances of his survival.
For now, Klopp is removed from the rigors of day-to-day management, and the role seems to strike a balance between elite-level involvement with a new challenge, but without the pressure and control that comes with being a manager. Time will tell if Klopp can resist the hype surrounding the latter in the long term.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
