He’s absolutely dead to me’ – Borussia Dortmund fans turn on Jurgen Klopp as ex- Liverpool boss ‘destroys legacy’ with Red Bull move

The former Liverpool boss, who walked away from management at the end of the 2023-24 campaign, has taken on a new job as head of football for energy drink giants Red Bull. He will be overseeing events at seven different clubs, spread across four continents.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  One of those is RB Leipzig, who have courted controversy in German football for supposedly circumventing the country’s “50+1” ownership model. Klopp said as recently as 2022: “I know how much the Red Bull idea is criticised by traditionalists, and I’m one of them too.” He is now involved with said brand.

  • WHAT GERMAN FOOTBALL EXPERT SAID

    German football expert Constantin Eckner has told talkSPORT of a bold career move from a 57-year-old that has often been viewed as a man of the people: “Members of the media and fans are thinking that Jurgen Klopp has destroyed his legacy. It might not be a hot topic in Britain but Red Bull when they came in they took over a sixth division club and financed Leipzig to go through the ranks and get to the Bundesliga. Red Bull are accused of circumventing the 50+1 rule which is held in high regard in German football which is highly controversial. He was the head coach of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, who have positioned themselves as the antithesis of clubs like Leipzig and Hoffenheim. Especially Dortmund fans but a lot of football fans in general are not only annoyed, but somewhat angry.”

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    DID YOU KNOW?

    BVB supporters have reacted to the news of Klopp’s appointment by Red Bull by stating that “football is dead” and the man at the centre of the controversy is “dead to me”. Others have said that the news makes them “feel sick”, with Klopp saying his new role “could not excite me more”.

    WHAT NEXT?

    Pundits have also stuck the boot in on Klopp, with Sport1 claiming that he has “destroyed his image with one step” and “sold out on everything he stood for all these years”. Meanwhile, a piece from Ruhr news outlet WAZ ran with the headline “Klopp stands for everything that’s going wrong in football” as the ex-Liverpool boss is accused of putting financial gain ahead of personal and sporting principles.