Jurgen Klopp has spoken about the controversy surrounding his new job as Head of Global Football at Red Bull.
The 57-year-old, who left Liverpool in the summer of 2024, announced that he will be beginning the new role in January 2025, drawing a flood of protest from across German football.
Speaking on Einfach mal Luppen, a podcast hosted by Toni Kroos and his brother, Felix, Klopp spoke for the first time about the reaction his decision has caused.
“I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, absolutely not. And I love all of my former clubs,” he said “but I don’t really know what I could have done to make everyone happy.”
Red Bull’s football network is highly contentious in Germany where, in 2009, RB Leipzig were founded and constructed in a way that allowed the club to artificially conform to the Bundesliga’s 50+1 rule. The legislation mandates that majority control of clubs must remain with the members. At Leipzig, there are fewer than 20 members and they are all Red Bull employees.
Many fans elsewhere find the corporation’s presence in football affronting. Klopp himself has been critical of multiclub ownership in the past, describing himself as a “football romantic” and stating a preference for “the traditional stuff” in the game.
Naturally, Klopp has been criticised for this move and accused of hypocrisy — from every direction, but in particular by supporters of his previous clubs, Mainz and Borussia Dortmund.
When Mainz played RB Leipzig recently, the team’s ultra flew a banner before the game directed at Klopp, reading: “did you forget everything we made you become?”
Local media in Dortmund has also been especially harsh. Reporting for Ruhr Nachrichten in response, journalist Kevin Pinnow wrote that “Klopp is tearing down his BVB monument by moving to Red Bull.”
But Klopp, while not quite defending his decision, has said that he was drawn to the quality of the Red Bull position and offer, and by a desire not to remain inactive in the game.
“It was always clear, well, clear to me, that I wouldn’t do nothing. And then the Red Bull story came up. And it was an outstanding (option), and I have to be honest about that.”
Klopp has also spoken for the first time about the nature of his role.
“Basically, I’m an advisor,” he told the podcast. “Hopefully I can bring calm in different ways and, in other situations, assess things correctly and help the coaches.
“But I just want to support, not interfere, because I know how disruptive that is. Instead, I want to pass on my experience and work in the world that I know best.”
(Bernd Weißbrod/picture alliance via Getty Images)
