In 2015 Jurgen Klopp humbly introduced himself as the ‘Normal One’, and now he is looking forward to some normality after he leaves Liverpool FC, as he previously told This Is Anfield.
In a somewhat sad statement last week, the Liverpool manager disclosed that he doesn’t “know how normal life is so I have to find out,” after he announced his decision to leave the club at the end of the season.
Since 2001, his life has been dominated by management and the obligations that come with it, first with Mainz and then Borussia Dortmund and now Liverpool.
The 56-year-old conceded that he is “running out of energy” and it is more than understandable considering what he has given to each and every club; he’s more than earned his ‘normal life’.
As for what that entails, he told This Is Anfield during an exclusive interview in 2021 that it will be about “seeing the world.”
“It’s easy,” he replied when we asked what’s one thing you are looking forward to most after leaving management.
“I was a young father, an average player and it means for seeing the world I had no time and no money, and then I became a manager and I had immediately had absolutely no time but a little bit more money.
“I could see the whole world if I wanted but still, I have no time. So that’s it.
“Let me say it like this when a season ends – and I could obviously travel much more in the summer – I lie behind the finishing line still deeply breathing after a 100-metre race for the first two weeks.
“It’s not that you go on holiday and ‘now, come on I want to see the world. Go there and have a look at that cathedral’ or whatever; you just lie on some sunbed, anywhere in the world for the first two or three weeks.
“And then you usually start already again [for pre-season.] It’s fine, it’s just to have a look at what is out there.
“I’m pretty sure I am the coach who is most often asked, what are you doing after your career!”
During the recording of this interview, almost three years ago, Klopp acknowledged the time until 2024 – his contract length before his extension – was “a long, long time in football.”
It has certainly proven to be the case, as he went from being “full of energy” to “running out” of it.
Klopp deserves the chance to be with his family free of an expiration date, and during his travels he is sure to bump into a Scouser or two along his journey, we’re never far away!
This interview was part of This Is Anfield’s 20-year celebration in 2021. You can watch the interview in full on our YouTube or read it here.
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