When Hansi Flick was sacked as the manager of Germany on Sunday, it was inevitable that rumors around Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp would follow.
Reds midfielder Wataru Endō had a hand in Flick’s downfall, captaining Japan to a 4-1 victory in Wolfsburg on Saturday, but this was more the culmination of a miserable 12 months that has seen Germany crash out of the World Cup in the group stages and lose four of its six matches since.
Jan Åge Fjørtoft says that Klopp is the ‘dream’ appointment for the DFB, the German football association, while Sky Germany has named him as the ‘ideal’ candidate. That’s no surprise when you consider the scale of his achievements in his managerial career, including three league titles (two in his homeland and one in England) and a Champions League in 2019.
Such is the desperation to bring Klopp on board that Fjørtoft even claimed he may be offered a dual role, allowing him to continue as manager of Liverpool while coaching the national team when the club season paused.
“The problem that stands in the way of the whole thing is my loyalty,” Klopp said back in July (via TalkSport). “I can’t just leave Liverpool now and say I’ll take over Germany for a moment. That does not work.
“If I’m supposed to do it at some point, then I have to be available. And that’s just not me at the moment.”
Last season may have been somewhat ‘messed up’, with the Reds dropping out of the Champions League for the first time since 2016, but Klopp will no doubt have been ‘buoyed’ by a strong start to the current campaign that has seen his side collect 10 points from a possible 12.
Liverpool.com says: Klopp’s Liverpool exit timeline should be abundantly clear by this point — 2026 at the earliest, when his contract expires. Assuming he doesn’t sign another extension, then this could actually be an ideal juncture for a move into international football, whether that’s with Germany or another nation, because it will mark the end of a World Cup cycle.
Of course, at that point, the Reds boss may also fancy a sabbatical, no doubt drained by a tenure on Merseyside that stretches all the way back to October 2015. Now the longest-serving manager in the Premier League, Klopp may at the very least want to repeat the five-month break he enjoyed following his final season at Borussia Dortmund. The international game could be a nice change of pace in that regard, though, as the games take place in March, June/July, September, October and November, as opposed to year-round.
Ultimately, now is no time to leave Anfield, with Klopp launching Liverpool 2.0 this summer by moving on from some of the old guard and introducing a batch of exciting new signings to re-energize the club.