Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was pictured back in Borussia Dortmund colours as he prepares to return to the dugout for the first time since his Anfield exit. The German, who announced his departure from the Reds in January and concluded his tenure with a 2-0 win over Wolves in May, is at the Signal Iduna Park for a special testimonial match for Lukasz Piszczek and Jakub Blaszczykowski.
Both Piszczek and Blaszcsykowski were integral members of the squad when Klopp was in charge at Dortmund. The 57-year-old spent seven successful years at Dortmund between 2008 and 2015, winning 180 of his 319 matches in charge. During that time, Klopp guided Dortmund to the Bundesliga title twice, the DFB-Pokal and almost guided them to the Champions League, only to lose the 2012/13 final to Bayern Munich.
Since leaving Liverpool, Klopp has enjoyed some well-earned time off. He was spotted at a Taylor Swift concert at Anfield earlier this summer before appearing at the Paralympics last week. Klopp was in Paris to watch a friend playing badminton at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.
Now, Klopp has made his way to Dortmund and he was spotted back on the training field on Friday ahead of managing Blaszcsykowski’s side. Former Leicester centre-back Marcin Wasilewski, Roma defender Mats Hummels, ex-Hull winger Kamil Grosicki and Neven Subotic are among those to be led out by Klopp, with the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Nuri Sahin on Piszczek’s team.
During his training session, Klopp looked as animated as ever. As he often did at Liverpool, he joined in with firing some jokes and lighthearted digs at some of his players. A video – captured by Dortmund’s social media team – appeared to show Klopp getting involved with his players.
After a long-range shot was missed, Klopp showed his sarcastic side. He said: “Yes, nice. Desperation shot. We’ve only been playing for two minutes and he shoots from 40 metres already. I don’t know how long we want to watch this. The next goal will decide, if one ever falls.”
That wasn’t the only piece of sarcasm that Klopp decided to show throughout that video clip. Towards the end, he was heard saying: “Can someone get me a heart rate monitor. I would be really interested in Mo Zidan’s pulse.”
