Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp confirmed on Wednesday that, at the end of this season, he’d be leaving the club. Having seen talismanic players Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski leave recently at the very end of a campaign, Klopp told the media he “chose this time to announce it because in the last few years some player decisions were made late and there was no time to react.” So what, precisely, will that reaction be? And what’s next for the inimitable Jurgen Klopp?
Jürgen Klopp: BvB Legend
What Klopp has done for Dortmund is absolutely astounding. In 2010-11, Dortmund captured their first Bundesliga title in nearly a decade. The following season, however, was even more remarkable—indeed, unprecedented. Dortmund not only defended their Bundesliga crown for back-to-back championships, they thumped Bayern Munich 5-2 in the DFB Pokal final, winning the league/ cup double for the first time in Dortmund’s history; in more than a century of Dortmund’s football, no one had achieved what Klopp did in the 2011-2012 season.
Dortmund fans will doubtless be crestfallen, even distraught. Having lost some of their best and brightest young stars to the leviathan that is Bayern Munich, and having spent an unenviable amount of this season at the bottom of the Bundesliga Tabelle, Klopp’s departure must seem yet another blow in a long series—a kick in the ribs when you’re down. Although it was yet less than three years ago that Dortmund dominated Bayern in the cup final to secure their first double, that match day likely seems a moment in the distant past for Dortmund fans.
But Dortmund supporters are notoriously tenacious, showing up to the ground in droves on match day whatever the occasion—whether it’s a Champions League Semi-final, or an Europa League qualifying match, the stadium is rarely anything but packed and raucous. There will doubtless be dissenters, but on the whole, I’m confident that the fans will give Klopp what he deserves: a grateful and gracious send-off. Klopp has given them unprecedented glory, and has carried himself with a laudable combination of passion and grace in the process. When Klopp leaves his final home match this season, I imagine that the Westfalenstadion will be packed to its 80,000 capacity, the Yellow Wall in full voice, thanking Klopp for his service.
I am confident Klopp’s departure will be met with the same sort of grace and passion with which he’s conducted himself as Dortmund’s manager; I am less confident in what might be next. There’s been a great deal of speculation that he might land in the Premier League, a competition he has long been quoted as saying he admires, and has even vaguely speculated he might like to manage within one day. Although there has been some suggestion of Real Madrid as a potential destination, this seems, to me, terribly unlikely, as Klopp has publicly suggested that the EPL is on his radar. But where, therein, might he land?
Klopp in England?
The frontrunner at the moment looks to be Manchester City. Manuel Pellegrini’s record of late is, let’s face it, abysmal. Managers at major EPL clubs have been fired for less. Further, City might be an attractive destination for Klopp for their purchasing power. The departures of Gotze and Lewandowski must have stung for Jurgen, having mentored them, especially Gotze, only to see them head to the bigger club down in Bavaria. At City, the ownership’s oil billions mean the club can match any offer, can afford to pay even fringe players who find themselves rarely on the pitch more than £100,000-a-week. Commanding those kind of coffers has an allure for any manager, but perhaps especially for a man whose seen his young talent drawn away in the past.
And yet, despite the attraction of City’s purchasing power—and consequent status as title contender—I’m not sure that’s what Jürgen Klopp is after. Although they are not quite the fickle, revolving-door that is Chelsea’s treatment of managers (The Special One perhaps excepting), Manchester City has had three different managers since 2008, the same time that Klopp has been in charge of Dortmund. Even if Manuel Pellegrini manages a Top 4 finish for City, securing them a spot in the Champions League, he seems likely to be fired. Would Klopp really want to put himself in such a position?
History suggests not. As a player, Jürgen Klopp is one of a very, very select few in the modern era to play his entire professional career with the same club: 1. FSV Mainz 05. From 1989 until 2001, Klopp played on the same team, in the same stadium, in front of the same fans. And what did he do upon retirement? Why, he took the reins at Mainz as manager, of course. Clop not only led his club to their first ever promotion into Germany’s top flight Bundesliga, he even stayed with them after they were relegated.
After seven years as manager, nineteen years in total, Klopp finally left Mainz in 2008, joining up with Dortmund. Thus, wherever Klopp lands next, in addition to being his third ever managerial position, it’ll also be just the third club he’ll have associated himself with in the past 25 years, since he was merely 22 years old. Would such a man really want to risk signing up with a club only to be kicked to the curb in a year, maybe two, should he fail to win the league?
Among England’s top teams, Arsene Wenger at Arsenal is the manager with far and away the longest tenure, having guided the Gunners since joining up from Nagoya Grampus of Japan in 1996. But even if Klopp decides to take a sabbatical and wait out Wenger’s reign, there’s no guarantee that Stan Kroenke and the Arsenal board will be as stalwart in backing Wenger’s successor. Although the EPL may offer an attractive competition, and though Klopp himself has already expressed interest in it, wherever he signs up—be it a mid-table team or a perennial powerhouse—he’ll need to prepare himself for a league in which his own loyalty is somewhat less likely to be repaid.