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NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 30, 2022: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp celebrates after the FA Premier League match between Newcastle United FC and Liverpool FC at St James' Park. Liverpool won 1-0. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Jurgen Klopp wins Manager of the Year double – with Alex Ferguson in “agony”

Jurgen Klopp was twice named Manager of the Year on Tuesday night, with the Liverpool boss relishing the “most important prize” of his peers’ recognition.

It has been a remarkable season for Klopp, who has already won two trophies with the Reds and is preparing for a push for the third in the Champions League final.

Liverpool went to the wire in the Premier League title race, too, only being pipped by Man City by a single point on the final day having at one stage been 14 behind.

The club were boosted by the news of Klopp’s extended contract in April, and their belief in the German was reinforced on Tuesday as he won two Manager of the Year awards.

At the League Managers’ Association ceremony, he was handed the Sir Alex Ferguson Trophy for the LMA Manager of the Year – an award voted for by managers across the Premier League and the EFL.

On the same night, it was announced that Klopp had also been named the Premier League‘s Manager of the Season, beating Pep Guardiola, Patrick Vieira, Eddie Howe and Thomas Frank.

It was the second time Klopp has won both awards, having also been named LMA Manager of the Year and Premier League Manager of the Season in 2020.

Speaking as he picked up the 20th LMA Manager of the Year trophy since its inception, Klopp described it as the “most important prize” he could pick up individually.

But he added: “I am here with all of my coaching staff, they know how much I appreciate them.”

With the trophy named after him, Sir Alex Ferguson was present to award it to Klopp, with the legendary former Man United boss admitting it was “agony” to hand it to a Liverpool manager.

“This is agony, absolute agony,” he said.

Recalling how he advised him to join a club with history when they met 12 years ago, Ferguson joked: “I should have told him to go to Scunthorpe United!”

Klopp is only the second Liverpool manager to win the LMA Manager of the Year award, following Brendan Rodgers’ honour in 2014, and the only Reds boss to win the Premier League prize.

He was not, however, the only Liverpool manager to win at the LMA awards, with Matt Beard named Women’s Championship Manager of the Year after steering his side to the title.