Pep Lijnders has hinted that Jurgen Klopp may never return to football – and could assume the role of a man of leisure.
After nearly nine years of giving his all to Liverpool, Klopp will be enjoying an extended break with his wife Ulla on the Spanish island of Majorca. They’re going to move into a new £3.4million villa.
At 56, it’s widely expected he’ll be back in football one way or the other at some point. Managing his native Germany could be on the cards, while a return to Borussia Dortmund as club president has been touted.
However, his right-hand man at Anfield has suggested he may have had enough of the demands of being a manager. Lijnders, who’s taken charge of Red Bull Salzburg, touched on the matter in an interview with The Athletic.
“In the life we lead as coaches, and I’ve lived it now for 22 years, nothing else counts apart from the next game,” he said. “You might have one hour of joy before you start thinking about the next game.
“Doing that for so many years at the level Jurgen has managed, you come to an age where you really want to wake up in the morning and just think, ‘What time shall I go to the bakery? Shall I take my bike or the car? What time shall I book that padel court for?’ Simple things.
“I don’t know if he will manage again but he will do a lot of good things for the world. There will be a lot of interest in him, and I know I’ll be getting sent a lot of pictures from his holidays.”
Klopp has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of retirement thus far. But whether he’ll change his mind after a year on the beach is anyone’s guess. He told reporters in March: “Will I ever work again?
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“Of course, I know myself, I cannot just sit around. I will find something else maybe to do. But I will not manage a club or a country at least for a year, that’s not possible, I cannot do that and I don’t want to. That’s all.”
He reiterated that stance in his final press conference, explaining that he doesn’t want to fall into the trap of coming back time and time again. “I will work,” he insisted. “I have just finished this job.
“I don’t know exactly why nobody believes I will probably not be a manager again, but I understand because obviously it seems to be a drug. It looks like that as everybody comes back and everybody works until they are 70-something.
“I have always had the idea I won’t do that. Other people are smarter and do it in different ways, but I have to be all in. I have to be the spark, I have to be the energiser, I have to be all these kinds of things. And I am empty. That’s it.”
