Jürgen Klopp actually wanted to retire from Liverpool FC in 2024, but now he has extended his contract after all. This was not only because of his wife.
Liverpool club bosses persuaded Jürgen Klopp to extend his contract to 2026 after all on Thursday, but without his wife they would have had no chance. Klopp gave insights into his motives for scrapping the original plan on Friday.
The idea of quitting as Liverpool FC coach in 2024, which was also communicated publicly several times, was based on “a private agreement” with his wife, Klopp said on the club website, and her opinion was decisive: “The most important contract I signed in my life was the one with Ulla.”
But then, he said, they were both sitting at the kitchen table one day “and Ulla said, ‘I don’t see us leaving City 2024.’ And I was like, ‘What?'”, Klopp reported. That was the “first moment”, he said, from then on he began to think about an extension.
After Lijnders’ promise, the talks could begin
“But then it was clear that I had to have another very important conversation, and that was with Pep Lijnders,” Klopp continued. He said he had much more in common with his assistant than just football. And “when he said, ‘Oh, yes, I’m in!’ – it was clear that we were open for talks. That’s why we’re sitting here now.”
His private situation, he said, continues to be the starting point for all future plans. If his wife wanted to turn her back on Liverpool, “we would leave, that’s the truth,” stressed Klopp, who has been in charge since October 2015. But: “She loves it here. “