The last time Jürgen Klopp took a break from management, it didn’t last long, with the 58-year-old German trainer only out of work for a few months following his Dortmund departure before joining Liverpool. Having stepped down from the Reds in 2024, his second sabbatical has proven far more significant.
In the meantime he’s taken on an executive level gig for the Red Bull group, acting as global director of football within the energy drink empire, but that’s a far less involved and intense role than
manager—though most on the outside at least continue to speculate about an eventual return to the career role he’s most famous for.
On that front, the usual chatter focuses in on an expectation that sooner or later Klopp will end up managing the German national team, but in recent months there’s been a steady thrum out of Spain setting him out first as the potential next permanent Real Madrid manager and now linking him with Atletico Madrid.
“It’s a good thing that we talk about this,” Klopp said this week when asked about the Madrid chatter, launching into something half way between a denial and a condemnation of the speculative press in Spain and elsewhere. “When is news news? When does someone write something—just when there is something true?
“I don’t know if it’s AI or if there are people behind it when they just write anything, but it annoys me. Real Madrid haven’t called me even once. My agent is just over there, you can ask him. And now I’m supposed to coach Atletico Madrid as well, maybe at the same time. They really need to question this a bit.”
Longer term, though, Klopp does admit he hasn’t entirely moved on from coaching and still sees himself getting back into it at some point. With previous statements that he can’t see himself learning another language, though, and the awkwardness of taking on a league job in Germany or England, there aren’t many options.
Klopp has explicitly said he wouldn’t take on another Premier League job after managing Liverpool, and his history at Dortmund seems to rule out ever joining Bayern Munich in particular. So if he’s not going to learn Spanish and the Madrid (either flavour) chatter is bullshit, that really only leaves national teams.
“I’ve said a thousand times already that I’m not thinking about it right now,” he added. “There’s no reason to, thankfully. But for the future, I’m not quite finished as a coach yet, so who knows what might come up in the next few years. But there are absolutely no immediate plans in that regard.”
