Leave it to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to maintain a proper perspective of everything. As the coronavirus pandemic has turned the world upside down, making our collective so-called “new normal” a reality unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, the German has said all the right things in public.
The COVID crisis has left a lot of LFC supporters seriously concerned about what will happen to the season and thus, the Reds’ inevitable Premier League title. It’s a historical honor, as it will end the Merseyside club’s long league title drought.
As big as that is, to football supporters and punidts alike, it all takes a backseat, way way back to what’s going on in the world right now. Klopp definitely understands that, as we was moved to tears by the video of health care workers singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” a few weeks ago.
As we all endure these extremely strange and utterly trying times, we’ll re-assess and re-evaluate a lot of our standards, practices and guidelines. Some establishments won’t exist after all this. Others will come back, but in a seriously altered form. Throughout it all, Klopp hopes humanity will learn and grow from this.
“Other people have bigger problems,” he said in video call with NBC. “Losing their jobs, being seriously ill. The elder and more vulnerable people, that’s what we have to think about. In these moments you can lose a bit of patience, that’s normal, but we try to give a positive perspective as well.”
As bored and tedious as life may be for many of us right now, we all must remember those who don’t even have the luxury of being bored, because they have serious adversity to deal with.
Klopp hopes we can all realize what a teachable moment we’re currently in, and thus, learn something from it all.
“If we really take care of each other more, that’s very important. We are so often in our own world, so this problem shows that the whole world has the same problem,” he continued.
“It happened in one month, the whole world had the same problem. Before that there was Brexit and problems between the countries. In this moment, we really see we live in the same place and we have to take care of the same place. I really hope we can learn this from the time. I’m pretty sure we will. This generation is good in learning.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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