Jurgen Klopp has lifted the lid on why he rejected the chance to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United before joining Liverpool.
Klopp enjoyed nine glittering seasons at Anfield, guiding the club to a first Premier League title in 30 years as well as a sixth Champions League during a stay which coincided with Man United’s nosedive down the table.
But his career could have gone down a very different path, with the German revealing that he was approached by United while head coach of Borussia Dortmund in 2013.
“In the year when Sir Alex retired, they spoke to me,” Klopp told British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast. “Of course, they were interested at one point. At that time, I would have been interested, I was young – I had a sensational team at Dortmund. They probably thought, ‘what is he doing there?’
“Later on I heard that my (Liverpool) players – James Milner and Adam Lallana – they flew to Real Madrid when we (Dortmund) had a semi-final there in the Champions League just to watch us play. ‘What is Dortmund doing? What football that is?’ I mean, you cannot get a bigger compliment.
“United tried (to approach me). It was the wrong time, wrong moment. I had a contract at Dortmund and wouldn’t have left for anybody. They wanted a new manager and I was one of a few options I think.”
While his contract at Dortmund gave Klopp an easy reason to say no to the Red Devils, the former Reds boss insisted that the project was not right for him.
He said: “There were some things in the conversations that I didn’t like. The idea was that big – ‘we get all the players you want, we get him, and him, and him – and I was sitting there like… yeah, this is not my type of project. It was the wrong time but on top of that it was not my project.
“I didn’t want to bring back (Paul) Pogba, he was a sensational player but these things don’t work usually. Or Cristiano (Ronaldo), we all know he’s the best player, together with (Lionel) Messi, in the world but bringing back never helps.”
Bartlett then asked if the style of football was ever spoken about in meetings with United, to which Klopp replied: “No, not at all. I was sat there and was like ‘that’s not for me’. And then a pure football project comes up with Liverpool.”
