Jurgen Klopp loves life after coaching, doesn’t plan on coming back: ‘I miss nothing, I enjoy what I’m doing’

It was Saturday and Jurgen Klopp essentially had a day off in New York, or at least several hours to kill. Jet lag meant he woke up at 5:30 a.m. ET, in time to react when the notifications hit his phone that RB Omiya Ardija, a team in Japan’s second division, went down 2-0 early before clawing their way back for a 4-3 win. There was enough time in the day to catch RB Leipzig’s 1-0 win at Wolfsburg, walk down Fifth Avenue, galivant around Central Park, scout out the gummy bears at Sports Illustrated Stadium ahead of the New York Red Bulls‘ clash with New York City FC – and come to a realization.

This time “last year or whenever it was, I would be in [Crystal] Palace and I would have to explain why we lost. I was so happy! I was so happy I didn’t have to do that,” he cheerfully admitted over the course of an exclusive 45 minute interview with CBS Sports, taking a moment to reflect on Liverpool‘s defeat to the South London side earlier that day. “That’s why I’m walking through Central Park this afternoon and thinking, ‘Yes! Perfect decision.’”

Klopp’s Saturday was a welcome change of pace for the former Reds manager, whose weekends once revolved around a match for which he bore “1,000% responsibility,” especially if his team lost. In the year and change since he left Anfield, he has assumed a new role as the head of global soccer at Red Bull, a move he said makes perfect sense for all parties involved. His tactical vision matches his new employer’s, who also benefit from the prestige of his title-winning reputation, while he keeps busy in a job that has plenty of similarities to the coaching roles he built his reputation on. It is not the type of job a manager of his capabilities takes while he is still at the top of his game, at least from an outsider’s perspective, but he insists it is not a form of retirement. The new gig is not some placeholder for a return to coaching on his own terms down the road, either.

“I don’t miss anything,” he said about coaching. “I didn’t miss [it] from the first second.”

‘I will not go back’ to coaching

When Klopp announced in January 2024 that he would leave Liverpool after nearly a decade at the club, the news came as a surprise to many. Things were still trending in the right direction for the Reds, who went on to win the EFL Cup that season, make quarterfinal runs in the FA Cup and the UEFA Europa League and finish third in the Premier League. Managers rarely quit while they are ahead in this sport and Klopp was still well and truly one of the elites when he made the call to step away.

As he reflects on his past, though, it becomes easy to understand his decision to back away. Klopp held his hands up close to his chest, slowly bringing them together as he described his previous pre-match feelings.

“I don’t miss sitting in the bus or coach on the way to the game and feeling closing [in] the chest,” he said. “You think, ‘I know it’s only football,’ but it’s just my body doesn’t understand it. The pressure is massive, massive, massive and even though I’m not completely done and I know there are more important things in life and it’s still big because you want to do good, you want to do it right, you want to do it for the people, you want to win, whatever. You just want to enjoy what you are doing.”

More than two decades after taking his first managerial position at Mainz in 2001, he said with no hesitation that one of sports’ most demanding jobs had finally taken its toll.

“I could’ve stayed at Liverpool. Somehow, I would’ve gone through that season. If somebody asked me a silly question, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to say anymore, ‘I know where you’re coming from.’ I just would’ve went for him, her, whatever. ‘That’s enough!’ My bottle or glass, whatever, was really full,” he said before he used his hands to indicate that if one more drop of liquid landed in that bottle or glass, there would be an explosion. “Anyway, I loved everything about it until I couldn’t do it anymore so that’s it.”

When he finally left his post at Liverpool, his body responded in accordance.

“I was not ill for 24 years or whatever, so I finished with Liverpool,” he recalled. “I think two or three weeks later was the start of the Euros. We had tickets for all the group games of Germany, we had like an option for all the next stages if we go through. I go to the first game and then I’m ill like I’ve never been ill before in my life. Two weeks, couldn’t lift my head. ‘Can you please switch the light off?’ It was crazy – head, temperature, in the middle of the summer. I hated myself so much. I was so desperate for life. I couldn’t move my head! What’s going on here? That’s not fair. Not everything in my life has to click and be the best but that’s not fair, so my body needed two weeks or whatever.”

Three league titles in two countries, one UEFA Champions League title, more than 500 career wins as a manager and one brutal cold later, it is clear that Klopp has nothing left to prove but he insisted that there is not anything he particularly misses about his old responsibilities. A year-long distance from the touchline has not necessarily made the heart grow fonder, instead reinforcing the decision he made in the winter of 2024.

“From some perspectives, I’m an old man,” the 58-year-old said. “That means if I look at my grandkids, they look at me like an old man but in the business, there are older people working, still, than me … If I have to make the decision today for an entire whatever, I will say no. I will not go back but looking at Carlo Ancelotti, I don’t even know how old he is, maybe 65 or something like that. It would mean I have seven years’ time to change my mind so I probably cannot say I will not coach, 1,000%, I will not be back but in this moment right now, I miss nothing. I enjoy what I’m doing. I don’t want to stop working at all. I never wanted [to]. I just wanted, needed something else.”

That something else, in his case, is a job at Red Bull where he has the best of both worlds – enough work to keep him busy with the most relatable allure of a work-life balance that usually a nonstarter for a professional coach.

“We go on holiday when we want and not when we are allowed to,” he said. “You can organize everything like that and we have Mario Gomez [former Germany international and current technical director of Red Bull Soccer], he will take over. He can go on holiday, I can go on holiday, one of us is here and is doing the job, informs the other one. The world will not change overnight just because we are, [for] a week, somewhere and that’s how it should be and it never was and now it is like that.”

The presumed meet-in-the-middle job is a post with a national team, a role Klopp has never held before but a type of position that has recently lured well-respected club managers in different parts of the world. At next summer’s World Cup, Mauricio Pochettino will be in charge of the U.S. men’s national team, Thomas Tuchel will steward England, Carlo Ancelotti will be at Brazil‘s helm and Julian Nagelsmann will continue his spell in charge of Germany. None of them had any previous experience coaching national teams, their reputations instead built on success in Europe’s top leagues in the same way Klopp did.

Klopp himself was linked to the USMNT and England jobs before formally joining Red Bull, rebuffing both offers as he took a break from the game. His sabbatical now complete, the former Liverpool boss said he still cannot speak to the appeal of a national team role despite the influx of managers from the club level, nor does he actually think of it as a less demanding job.

“No clue,” he said with a big laugh as he pondered why club managers have taken international postings in recent months. “I don’t know it, really. As a footballer, if somebody would’ve told me you had the chance to become a German international, honestly I don’t know what I would’ve done for it. Really? What do I have to do? What do I have to sell? My soul? It’s crazy how much I dreamt of it – everybody in soccer. It’s crazy and the coach is not exactly the same but if you want, kind of, serving your country, I understand that and it would be a massive honor but for me, so far I was never in the situation. I was at a contract at a club and I have, not a contract, but this moment, I can’t really see myself as a coach and that’s not an idea, [I’m] not [like] children sitting in the corner saying, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ It’s just I know what I need to do it. I need to be on top of my game. If I’m not that, I’m not good. If I’m not good, why should I do it? It makes no sense. That’s the reason.”

Klopp is not exactly angling for the Germany job after the World Cup, either.

“The job, in my understanding, is an intense job, being the national coach,” he said. “People say, oh, he’s only working every three and four weeks and whatever and he brings the players together and they’re all good players so I don’t know. I never really thought about it. I am the biggest supporter of Julian Nagelsmann. I am. I hope Germany will become world champions and he signs another few years.”

Coaching ‘in a different way’

Klopp’s weeks-long cold in the summer of 2024 drew him to two conclusions, the first being that he missed nothing about coaching; the second was that he needed something else to occupy his time.

“I knew relatively quickly, even though I enjoyed the time off massively, that is just the longest holiday in my life and not the future,” he said. “I will not do nothing. I love my grandkids to bits – right arm, left arm, you need it, take it, no problem, but 24/7? Are you kidding me? Sitting in the corner building a house and then he destroys it? Oh, come on! … It’s wonderful. It’s wonderful but not 24/7.”

He was unveiled as the head of global soccer at Red Bull in October before formally beginning the role in January, a job he described as “like being a fan with having more say.” His say is pretty sizable – Klopp has been tasked with mapping out and instilling a tactical vision for the company’s international network of clubs, four of which are majority owned, three in which Red Bull has a minority stake and one — Red Bull Salzburg — where the company is its main sponsor. It is a first-of-its-kind job at Red Bull, a rare oversight role even if multiclub ownership models are all the rage in soccer and energizing enough in its own right for a “true mastermind of the game,” according to Gomez.  

“This is a role at Red Bull that has never existed in this form before, within a truly attractive club network,” Gomez told CBS Sports. “Here, he has the chance to shape something new, to drive development forward in a decisive way, and to leave his mark. His approach fits perfectly with Red Bull, because throughout his coaching career, he has always developed teams and clubs. What impresses me most: he wants to keep learning every single day. And with this mindset, he inspires everyone else to do the same — to learn.”

Klopp said he was a natural fit for Red Bull stylistically, because “my life was like the Red Bull philosophy. It’s being perfectly organized against the ball, these kinds of things, high-intensity, these kinds of things.” It is not the only commonality between Klopp and his new employer, though.

“The life of a Red Bull football team is like my life was as a manager for most of my career,” he explained. “When you play a really good season, they will buy the best players, the other teams. We are not the biggest fish in the sea. It’s only the last four, five years at Liverpool [where] it was different. Before that, we played exceptional and somebody picked [Robert] Lewandowski, [Philippe] Coutinho, whoever it was, [Nuri] Sahin. You said, ‘Oh, my God, where are you going?’ [Mario] Gotze. That means you have to deal with that and that’s how I created a philosophy and this philosophy fits really well to Red Bull football teams.”

Klopp describes his philosophy as two-fold. The general philosophy “is we want to be the talent pool for – I don’t want to use the word ‘football’ but football,” chiefly by developing young players. The concept is an admirable one but in the murky multi-club ownership landscape, there is a perceived illegitimacy when the idea is put into practice. Klopp is not particularly rattled by the criticism.

“I know I said in Germany in my first press conference [that] I want to give wings to people,” he said. “People would say it’s a bit cheap to use the slogan of the [company] but if I’m 1,000% honest, it’s in me. I always wanted it. I always wanted young players and make them fly so now I say I want to give them wings and it’s the Red Bull slogan, you can say it’s cheap but it was just here. … I know what people think about MCOs. It’s like just money, it’s like swapping players from A to B. It doesn’t happen. It doesn’t really happen. It’s difficult right now and it’s not really what we do here.”

That is where the playing philosophy comes in – and where Klopp slips back into coach mode.

“The playing philosophy is a philosophy which is based on stability because if you want to give young people the chance to develop, you have to make sure that they are not overwhelmed constantly,” Klopp said. “They are not ready for that. They would never say it [out] loud but inside, we all have that voice – are we really ready for that? Not sure so you create a surrounding and a basis which is really stable and really, on the football pitch, is with the way you defend, and if that, everybody’s got it. … Great, and now fly and now jump and now be brave and now nothing can happen because as long as we do all these kinds of things, you can be the bravest team on the planet because you make a mistake, no problem, but you make it there roughly 70, 80 meters away from our goal, you have opportunities to win the ball back until it happens here. You can really go crazy – nutmeg, backheel, whatever. Do. Be free. Show your talent.”

Klopp said he is “not the guy who tells everybody how to do it exactly” but rather introduces an idea to a coach, true to form for someone who “sees himself as a mentor and sparring partner,” per Gomez. The ebullience that has always come across in his frequent media opportunities as a coach and over the course of this 45 minute chat is just as apparent to Gomez, who goes back to Klopp’s warmth time and time again. His glass may have been full little more than a year ago but Klopp seems to exude enthusiasm these days, perhaps the result of achieving the work-life balance that eludes so many of us.

“He is highly focused, committed, and at the same time super empathetic,” Gomez said. “He brings everyone along and makes them feel, ‘Hey, I’m here for you — reach out to me anytime.’ … He has an incredible ability to connect with people. He is straightforward and totally direct, yet always respectful. And he leaves every meeting filled with positive energy and motivation for everyone involved. I truly value his outstanding soft skills.”

Klopp’s leadership style appears to be a patient one, insisting on a few occasions that things will not “happen overnight,” though he has already put some ideas into motion. He said it was his idea for the Red Bull teams to play back fours this season, including the New York that played five in the back en route to the MLS Cup final in 2024.

“You might remember, when I arrived, we played with five in the back, different way,” he said. “For the new season, we all play four in the back, and then it’s either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. On some days, a proper 4-4-2, no problem but we have to agree on a few things and the thing is look out there, the best teams in the world play with wingers. An old system, it was like 4-2-2-2. The wingers were the fullbacks but no. There’s a good reason why, it would be much too long – I could write a book about that, by the way – so you need players in that area, it doesn’t have to be always the same and first and foremost, the players have to be able to defend on that position. In a 4-3-3, my two wingers were – most of the time at Liverpool – Sadio [Mane] and Mo [Salah]. World stars still had to run their socks off so for that, everybody else supported them and throw them in front of the goal and made them [score] so this is the common idea.”

Style of play, as it always has, reigns supreme at Red Bull, to the point that Klopp argued that it holds more weight in managerial decisions at the company’s network of clubs than it would at most of their counterparts.

“if we sack a manager, for example, I want to do that for the right reasons and if we employ a manager, I want to do that for the right reasons,” he said. “Usually in that situation, you change [the] manager because the results aren’t right, barely because the style of play isn’t right. Mostly the results and the next one who’s coming in, you sign under pressure. It’s like, ‘Oh, my God! We have to sack the manager! Who’s on the market? Nobody. We have to sack him anyway! Wow! Who do we bring in?’ What is that? Who is that? He coached five years ago somewhere. That’s the guy you take and we don’t want to do that. The next thing, we know already in the future we need more coaches so we try to scout coaches all over the world. We are out there. Nobody cares about it because we are used to bring[ing] them in under pressure. That’s how it goes and usually it works, somehow, a breath of fresh air, all these things.”

Having say in managerial hires – and departures – is perhaps the greatest distinction to make between Klopp’s previous responsibilities and his current tasks, especially so for someone who “did what somebody else said over the last 25 years and I just got used to it.” He may have his Saturdays mostly to himself these days but some routines stay the same. He said he watches the same amount of soccer as he did before, it is just that the teams are different. His staff is made up of Thomas Tuchel’s former assistant Zsolt Low and his own ex-assistant Peter Krawietz, who also take in every game a Red Bull team plays, not as “the judges” but sharing information to managers “if he needs it because in the ideal world, no coach needs it.”

In short, the Red Bull job scratches his coaching itch just fine.

“I manage. The only thing is I’m not on the pitch. Sometimes I stand on the side,” Klopp said. “I’m not coaching but pretty much I do, in a different way.”