Former Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp has accepted a position as Head of Global Soccer at Austrian soft drinks giant Red Bull, who possess an international network of six football clubs with a strong emphasis on youth development.
The 57-year old Swabian left the Reds in the summer, his nine-year reign yielding the club’s nineteenth league title, sixth UEFA Champions League and season after season of intense title races against Manchester City, as well as two Champions League silver medals. His resignation was announced in January, to the surprise of the footballing world given his contract had been valid for a further two years. Citing burnout as his primary reason for departure, he claimed to be “running out of energy” in an emotional announcement video and in a subsequent interview committed to not taking up a new job in coaching for at least a year.
Klopp has technically made good on this pledge, with his role at Red Bull, once held by Ralf Rangnick of Manchester United and Austrian national team fame, an administrative one without day-to-day coaching responsibilities. Instead, he orchestrated the overarching footballing philosophy of the Red Bull family of clubs, from New York and Bragança Paulista, Brazil all the way through to Salzburg and the flagship German Champions League regulars RB Leipzig. Reports of an acquisition of France’s Paris FC also persist, which would consolidate the network’s foothold in the European game. As the public face of Red Bull’s favoured gegenpress (‘counter-pressing) play style that emphasises athleticism and rapid recovery of the ball upon loss of possession, to secure Klopp as the supremo of Red Bull’s lucrative operation can be seen as the ultimate coup. “I see my role primarily as a mentor for the coaches and management of the Red Bull clubs,” said Klopp in his first interview as a Red Bull employee.
The appointment has not been without controversy. Klopp is known as an evangelist for tradition and heritage in football, frequently targeting Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain for the bottomless pits of foreign wealth at their disposals. To accept employment from the Red Bull operation, reviled in his native Germany and elsewhere for their cynical circumvention of rules on fan ownership and superimposition of a corporate identity onto established, supported clubs, surely represents at best a recalibration of his values and at worst hypocrisy. There is also the prescient question of just how long this arrangement has been in the pipeline, with German news outlet TZ reporting that negotiations date back years, when Klopp was still very much Liverpool manager. I’m sure the fans have taken that well…
“Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool vs. Chelsea, UEFA Super Cup 2019-08-14 04” by Mehdi Bolourian is licensed under CC BY 4.0