The boozy singalong that got Jurgen Klopp back on track
The boozy singalong that got Jurgen Klopp back on track! Liverpool’s 2018 loss to Real Madrid was painful but tears, trophies and a sing-a-long that went viral helped the German boss move on
- Jurgen Klopp tells the story of the viral video that was posted after final defeat
- Liverpool had lost the 2017/18 Champions League final 3-1 against Real Madrid
- Video showed Klopp, hours after defeat, mocking his own team’s misfortune
- Klopp has now revealed how that moment has helped his side turn a corner
The pressure is on as Jurgen Klopp bounds into a gym at Liverpool’s training ground. He’s spent the previous two hours doing 11 different interviews, plus a press conference, and his expectations for this last gathering are not high.
‘If you ask a question that I’ve already been asked, I’m leaving!’ he warns, mischievously. When he realises it’s Sportsmail first, he spins as if to leave and roars with laughter.
The place to begin is the morning after Liverpool had lost to Real in the 2018 final. Klopp was at a low ebb but, with his inhibitions loosened by beer, an impromptu singsong took place in his house and it ended with him going viral online.
Jurgen Klopp (middle right), Andreas Frege (middle left) and Peter Krawietz (left) in the video
Stood with his arm around his friend Andreas ‘Campino’ Frege, the lead singer of a German rock band, Klopp — wearing a baseball cap back to front — bellowed: ‘We saw the European Cup! Madrid had all the f***ing luck! We swear we’ll keep on being cool! We’ll bring it back to Liverpool!’.
So, how did it all happen?
‘Ah!’ says Klopp, with an interested smile. ‘It started as one of the worst nights in my life…
‘The flight was horrendous. The feeling was down. The families were in another plane, and the worst moment was still to come: facing family and friends. When we arrived at Melwood, all the wives, girlfriends, friends, everybody was crying. Unbelievable!
‘We were not crying. I cry in these situations, but not that day as I was OK, kind of. It was a game, there were strange circumstances, but everybody was crying. My agent (Marc Kosicke) was crying! I was going: “What’s going on!?”’.
Klopp’s Liverpool fell to defeat against Real Madrid in the 2017/18 Champions League final
Klopp took a group back to his house in Formby to try and make sense of the game, from Mohamed Salah’s dislocated shoulder to Madrid’s three goals. It was 6am but nobody was going to sleep. ‘It’s the former house of Stevie Gerrard, so a little bit of his furniture was still there,’ Klopp says. ‘There was a big vase in the toilet. Peter Krawietz (video analyst) comes out with it and goes: “Yes! It looks like the Champions League trophy!”’
He mimics lifting the trophy, laughing. ‘Everybody took it,’ Klopp adds. ‘We had pictures: “Ah! That’s how it feels!” Campino is the most famous singer in Germany; he’s a good friend and massive LFC supporter. Then the song starts. We recorded it on a phone and we were all drunk… Then somebody said: “We have to put that out, the world needs that!” It’s not a good moment when you are slightly drunk…
‘Campino called his agency and said: “Put it on Twitter!” They said: “Wait! Speak to Jurgen, if he really wants that?” He was lying outside in socks, in the rain, on the grass… “Jurgen! Do you really want to do it?”’
He’s recreating the conversation, with facial expressions, to show a glass had been enjoyed. ‘‘Do you want to do it?” “Er, yeah, of course!” Next thing: it was out! But it pictured the mood we were in. We were over it. It’s better to suffer together than alone with your thoughts.
Mo Salah was forced off early in the 2017/18 final after a strong challenge by Sergio Ramos
‘The new season had started (in my mind) already and it started with that. It was fine.’
To see Klopp engaging so openly illustrates his positivity and the confidence he has in his team.
Liverpool were a work in progress four years ago, with Klopp having to answer questions about whether they were ‘nearly men’ — did they have it in them to win the big prizes?
Kyiv was a turning point. The players felt hollow watching Madrid get the trophy, but Klopp recalls being in Kyiv airport clinging to a thought that Liverpool’s time would come.
‘I remember only a little glimpse of light while standing in the queue and I had this thought: “Do we come back next year?”
Liverpool returned to the Champions League final the next year, beating Tottenham 2-0
‘But I remembered it only a year later. I didn’t think about it all throughout the whole Champions League campaign (in 2018-19). Just when we qualified for the final, I remembered there was something.
‘It felt so bad that maybe I just wanted to think there was a light somewhere, I don’t know,’ he says. ‘But it was: “Yeah! We can come back!”
‘Our Champions League story so far is a pretty special one. And it’s to be continued.’
Klopp brought the Champions League trophy to Liverpool for the first time since 2005
It continues, of course, tonight in Paris against the opponents who broke his heart in 2018.
And Liverpool are desperate to win the club game’s greatest prize again. Klopp, who has just signed a contract that keeps him at the club until 2026, can’t wait to write more chapters.
‘We have a wonderful squad,’ he says. ‘But it’s natural a few things will change. Not now, but in the future. There’s space for the next generation, while keeping this generation on the highest level. Let’s use the fantastic opportunity we have.
‘I think, then, it makes sense that I’m around.’
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