Ten clashes between the German and the whites, who were able to sign him in 2015
Jürgen Klopp once again crosses the path of Real Madrid in the European Cup . A classic of the last decade. Not long ago, the name of the German sounded loud and recurrent in the offices of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium . Klopp impressed the white club when he set foot in the Real Madrid stadium for the first time, in the group stage of the 2012-2013 season. He coached Borussia Dortmund , a team that had won Bayern two Bundesligas but in Europe was still a melon to open.
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In the first leg, the German team won 2-1 and in the second leg they drew a draw at two against José Mourinho’s Madrid, which was beginning to show the wear and tear to which it had subjected the team in the first two seasons. Already in that group stage duel, Klopp dazzled the Bernabéu on and off the field with his peculiar casual style. He then wore a jacket and tie on the grass , although he always declared himself in love with tracksuits.
It was at the end of April 2023, in the semifinals of that same edition of the Champions League, when Klopp burst into La Castellana like thunder . His 4-1 win in the first leg on Lewandowski’s best night and his resistance in the hell of the Bernabéu made him a candidate for the Real Madrid bench. There was not a fan who did not want Klopp in the band, although in Madrid they were more cautious. “For now he has only trained a team of children,” was heard in the Madrid offices, who asked for more time for the German. He would bet on Ancelotti after the departure of Mourinho.
A peculiar trainer
While Ancelotti directed Real Madrid, the German coach was not lost sight of in the white house, from whom information was collected. And it was clear in those reports that Klopp was not just another coach. Real Madrid profile? The doubts were reasonable.
“Klopp is a friend,” says Nuri Sahin , a coach who lived with both the German and Mourinho. “I will never forget his methods or the talk I had with him when I didn’t know whether to sign for Madrid. He told me that if I went to Madrid, the most important thing was that we didn’t lose our friendship. And that’s something that touches you… “.
His methods also do not go unnoticed. When he was coaching Mainz, just after raising it to the Bundesliga, he took the team to a Swedish island for five days of preseason. “We didn’t carry balls or anything, just tents, rain gear and canoes,” recall his collaborators. “It was a season in which we were going to suffer and I wanted the kids to find their lives for five days. We had neither food nor electricity. I knew that it was a plan that would help coexistence and that we would remember in bad times throughout the whole season”. Actions like this and his total football opened the doors of Dortmund for him, but not those of Madrid .
summer 2015
It was at the end of the 2014-2015 season that Real Madrid was able to sign Jurgen Klopp as coach . The white team dispensed with Ancelotti and did a casting for a couple of weeks. Klopp ‘s name was on the table, but the call never came through. His agent, attentive to all the information coming out of Spain, did not get into conversations with Madrid and Klopp’s train passed. Months later, Liverpool knocked on his door.
Since then, Klopp has been a regular rival for Real Madrid in the European Cup. A rival and sometimes villainous, with some high-sounding statements, like when he called the Alfredo di Stéfano stadium “training ground.” Against Madrid with the Pool, the balance is far from what he obtained with Dortmund . Klopp has lost two European Cup finals against Real Madrid and one tie, the one that was played in Valdebebas precisely. “It’s the royalty of Europe,” he said after the lost final last May. Three defeats and a draw against Madrid in the last five years. Three wins, two draws and five losses is his total score against Madrid. Ten games in the last ten years. A classic.
Klopp’s future
In England they say that Klopp’s cycle at Liverpool is coming to an end and that he could even be facing his last season at Anfield. With a contract until 2026, those who know him best assure however that it is unlikely that he will leave the ship this summer. “He is a legend, he will leave when he wants”, the owners of Liverpool have always said, grateful to the German for having returned the reds to the top.
One of the first measures that Klopp took when taking the team was to prohibit touching the This is Anfield sign until it was won again. With the 2019 Champions League, won at the Metropolitana, and the 2020 Premier League, the tradition is once again in force in the stadium that Real Madrid will step on again this Tuesday… to face Klopp once again.
