Wednesday, October 9, 2024, 12:02
| Updated 5:53 p.m.
Jürgen Klopp justified his departure from Liverpool at the end of last season as due to a lack of energy, but it seems that he will not be lacking in his new challenge. The German was named the new “global head of football” of the Austrian multinational energy drinks Red Bull, owner and sponsor of several sports clubs, a position he will hold from January 2025. The German, coach of the Anfield team for nine years in which he won all the important titles, including the Champions League and the first Premier League for the Reds in three decades, thus taking an unexpected turn in his career.
Within the company, the charismatic coach will be mainly responsible for the international network and the strategic direction of all the football clubs that act under the tutelage of Red Bull, such as Leipzig, Salzburg, New York or the Brazilian Bragantino. In total seven teams spread across three continents. “I want to develop, improve and support the incredible football talent we have,” Klopp explained in a Red Bull social media post.
«After almost 25 years on the sidelines, I couldn’t be more excited to get involved in a project like this. “The role may have changed, but not my passion for football and the people who make the game what it is,” he added. The energy drink company that sells around 12 billion units a year entered the world of sports, mainly in football and Formula 1, as well as in various extreme modalities or different sponsorship agreements.
As detailed by the newspaper Bild and the Sky television network, the key figure behind the change is the general director of Red Bull, Oliver Mintzlaff, responsible for all the company’s sports projects from 2022 and former executive director of Leipzig, who, According to the information, he would have been behind the German coach for several months, who in addition to his mark at Liverpool also left an important mark in the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund.
The German newspaper expands that Klopp’s new position “should be a higher-level function, not a day-to-day job”, so that he “contributes his specialized knowledge, his experience and his charisma”, as a “mix of strategist , analyst and consultant on transfers, coaches and club development. Thus, the 57-year-old Stuttgart-born coach will have the responsibility of ensuring that the brand’s DNA is reflected at all levels of the game, from the youth system to the first teams. Of course, Klopp has kept an ace up his sleeve, since if the German Football Federation (DFB) calls him to be the Mannschaft coach, he will be able to distance himself from this revolutionary new position.
