Jürgen Klopp cut an emotional figure in his final pre-match press conference on Friday, as he paid tribute to the Liverpool fanbase that has embraced him with open arms over the last nine years of his tenure.
Klopp has not just become an icon for Liverpool FC though. He’s become a legendary figure across the city itself, and he expressed in his press conference that he ‘loves absolutely everything about this place.’
He described Liverpool as ‘a wonderful and very, very special city,’ before going on to add that ‘nothing is perfect nowadays – but the majority of the people in this city are, for me, as close as possible because of the way they are [and] the way they deal with life.’
Embed from Getty ImagesIn particular, Klopp singled out ‘the way they welcome you, the way they treat you and I don’t [just] mean me, I mean all the people I know when they arrive in the city. What they tell me describes people in Liverpool. That’s wonderful to know.’
‘A decade in your life is a massive one and I will not forget, I would not say a minute, but I will not forget a day in that time because I met the best people I ever met and I did it for the best club I could have imagined,’ he expressed.
‘It’s wonderful to know that I spent a big time of my life here. I said it before, I got the key to the city, and I know that’s probably for a lot of people rather funny, for me it feels like a responsibility. I don’t imagine that the club will need my help in the future, but if the city needs me, I’m there. That’s how it is. I want to be helpful in whatever way and we will see how that looks.’
The last week has been a testing one emotionally for Klopp, and he explained that he has been flooded with messages of support and appreciation from fans. ‘In the last few weeks it was really extreme,’ he said.
Embed from Getty Images‘I got emails, letters and if I start answering them then I would still be sitting here in 2028. It’s just too much and I really apologise that I couldn’t react on them. Some of them I read, I didn’t read all of them. I couldn’t organise tickets for the last game – there were a lot of requests as well!’
‘And yesterday, I had for LFCTV to read letters [from fans] and I think with one of them I burst into tears. It’s just not possible, the stories behind what it meant to the people and what we did over these nine years and how their lives changed in these nine years. I know that football can do that to people and that football can do that to a city, and we did that.’
The German issued a rallying cry to fans before the press conference came to a close: ‘Keep doing that for the next generation, for the next team – big parts are still here – for the next manager, and you’ll feel the same way.’
‘It was before me about the club, it will be after me about the club and that’s how it should be. But we have very, very special supporters and the last nine years meant the world to them, and I’m happy about that.’