Jurgen Klopp reveals why he’s quitting Liverpool at end of the season

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has announced he will step down from his role at the club come the end of the season.

The German football manager joined the club in October 2015 when he took over from Brendan Rogers, with his contract not due to run out until 2026.

He led the Reds to victory in the Champions League in 2019 before the club also won their first league title in 30 years in 2019-20.

The 56-year-old former player made the announcement today (January 26th), as his side currently sits at the top of the Premier League, five points above Manchester City.

Klopp said: “I told the club already in November. I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.”

The Liverpool boss guided the side to their sixth European Cup in 2019, where they beat Tottenham in the final and went on to lift the Champions League trophy in Madrid.

Under Klopp, the Reds also followed with a victory in the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Club World Cup and, most significantly, the Premier League title the following season.

The club also won a domestic cup double in the season of 2021-22.

However, Liverpool failed to win any major silverware last season. Klopp continued: “It didn’t start [then], but of course last season was kind of a super-difficult season and there were moments when at other clubs probably the decision would have been, ‘Come on, thank you very much for everything but probably we should split here, or end it here.’ That didn’t happen here, obviously.

“For me it was super, super, super important that I can help to bring this team back on to the rails. It was all I was thinking about.

“When I realised pretty early that happened, it’s a really good team with massive potential and a super age group, super characters and all that, then I could start thinking about myself again and that was the outcome. It is not what I want to [do], it is just what I think is 100%.”

Assistant managers Pepijn Lijnders, Peter Krawietz and elite development coach Vitor Matos will also leave the club at the same time, Liverpool said.

On his final stretch at the club, Klopp added: “Let’s now really go for it. The outside world want to use this decision, laugh about it, want to disturb us.

“We are Liverpool, we went through harder things together. And you went through harder things before me. Let’s make a strength of it. That would be really cool.

“Let’s squeeze everything out of this season and have another thing to smile about when we look back in the future.”

Klopp’s nine years at Liverpool is the longest he has ever spent in charge of a football club. President of Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group, Mike Gordon, called Klopp’s appointment ‘one of the greatest blessings of our time as owners’.

He said: “First and foremost, on behalf of [principal owner] John Henry and [FSG chairman] Tom Werner, I would like to state our profound appreciation for Jurgen.

“It goes without saying that we will be hugely saddened to lose not just a manager of such calibre, but a person and leader for whom we have enormous respect, gratitude and affection.

“At the same time, we fully respect his wishes and the reasons why he has decided the current season will be his last at Liverpool.”

Meanwhile, ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher shared in a social media post: “This news was always going to be a body blow to the club whenever it came. I just thought it would be another few years away. 

“What a manager, what a man, let’s go out with a bang Jurgen!”