Jürgen Klopp has warned he will walk away from his new job as Germany’s head coach if the German media don’t “leave my family in peace”.
The former Liverpool coach has returned to management on a contract that runs until the end of the 2030 World Cup after leaving Liverpool in 2024.
The 59-year-old was unveiled on Friday, July 24, and he issued a stark warning to journalists after his predecessor Julian Nagelsmann faced intense scrutiny and criticism from the media.
“It is my mission to make the national team squad a better team and hope the pool for me to choose from will be bigger, but it is not something I am doing against you, I am doing it for you. It is an honour,” he said.
“I will be remunerated very graciously, and if tomorrow Jurgen Klopp is s***, I will be gone. But if the DFB says let us discontinue the job, then that’s it. And if you behave badly and don’t leave my family in peace, I’ll be gone. I’ll just turn away. I know there are other countries where national team head coaches are treated even worse. I love this job but I am also ready to call it quits if needs be.
“Jurgen Klopp is not going to have any ‘career’ after the national team. This is the pinnacle, the high point of my footballing career as a coach. I will give everything I’ve got, and I have the best possible assistant coaching team.”
Klopp was the first person the DFB turned to when Nagelsmann resigned after a disappointing World Cup ended with a penalty shoot-out exit to Paraguay in the last 32.
Klopp also warned his appointment won’t guarantee success and that expectations need to be adjusted.
“Jurgen Klopp being in the job doesn’t automatically mean we’re going to be world champions,” he said.
“Success is performance vs expectations. We need a new set of expectations. Many people have asked themselves, are we as good as France? If the answer is no, then that is not necessarily true. If the question is, do we have players like Dembele, Barcola, Mbappe? Then the answer is no, we don’t, but we can still beat them.
“We don’t want to play like Argentina, Spain, England or France. We want to play like Germany, do it the German way but very intense. Are we the number one team at the moment? No, we aren’t; I accept that. Would we be happy to be the number two team? Then people would say we aren’t number one.
“At the moment, we have 11 teams ahead of us. Yes, we can beat them, but for this to happen, you need to play very good, intense football.”
His first game in charge is against the Netherlands in the Nations League on September 24.
Klopp won the Champions League, Premier League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and League Cup twice at Liverpool.
After a six-month break, Klopp was appointed head of global soccer at Red Bull and later stated that he had no desire to return to club management.
