NEW YORK.- Jurgen Klopp defended his decision to lead the group of football teams Red Bull saying that “I didn’t want to offend anyone,” this after his decision generated criticism from some fans of his former teams in Germany.
Klopp will take on the role of global football boss for the energy drinks company in January, in what was seen as a surprise decision. This will be his first role since leaving Liverpool at the end of last season.
“I didn’t want to offend anyone, definitely not and personally I love all my former teams,” Klopp said in an interview released Wednesday on the podcast of former German and Real Madrid player, Toni Kroos.
Klopp suggested that if he had made the decision to manage another club it would also have been disappointing for some fans.
“I really don’t know what I could have done to make everyone happy,” he admitted.
In Germany, Red Bull, and especially Leipzig, are especially resented by soccer fans who see the company as a corporate presence trying to buy success.
Supporters of Borussia Dortmund, one of Klopp’s former teams, criticized the decision. While Mainz fans displayed banners this month expressing their disappointment and questioning whether “he was crazy.”
Klopp spent 18 years with Mainz as a player and coach before joining Dortmund in 2008, leading them to two Bundesliga titles and the Champions League final.
The veteran claimed that he never saw Red Bull’s involvement in a “so critical” way and suggested that it played an important role in bringing top-level football to East Germany with the Leipzig project.
Previously, the German coach said he wanted to take “a long break” from football after leaving Liverpool, a team he left last May after nine years.
Brief explanation
“I’m 57 years old, so I can still work for a couple more years, but I don’t really see myself in the band (as a coach) at the moment,” he indicated. “It was always clear that it wasn’t that I wasn’t going to do anything. And then this situation with Red Bull came and for me it was incredible.”
Klopp said he saw his role with Red Bull as essentially an “advisor” who will work alongside coaches and the teams owned by the energy drinks company. “I always had the feeling that the coach is the loneliest person in the club,” he added.
