Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp rejected the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead Manchester United back when Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. This narrative is back in the spotlight today as the Reds host United tomorrow in a massive rivalry clash.
Klopp met the media today for his weekly news conference, and the past chance that he had to succeed Fergie came up. He was asked about it by ESPN’s Alison Bender.
The German had a laugh with it. Watch as “the fun” begins around the 14-15 mark in the YouTube video below:
Klopp did a lot of the classic evasive maneuvers to that question, while also adding a couple more creative and comical ones. As you saw in the video above, he did the “I’m confused, what are you talking about??” routine for a bit, which always stalls for a decent amount of time.
However, The Telegraph wrote an article on this topic yesterday, reporting that:
“Jurgen Klopp turned down the chance to become the manager of Manchester United in 2013 when Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
The then Borussia Dortmund coach had been sounded out about the possibility of eventually becoming Ferguson’s successor the month before his retirement was announced but stunned the United hierarchy by informing them that he wanted to stay in Germany to try and knock Bayern Munich off their perch after they had taken back the Bundesliga title from him.”
I tried to ask Klopp about this but he laughed it off making jokes about it. Good swerve. https://t.co/0wetcoqCgz
— Alison Bender (@alibendertv) October 13, 2017
Sir Alex then hand-picked David Moyes to be his successor, and of course “The Chosen One” was as much of a total disaster as possible. The Scotsman didn’t last even an entire season, got sacked in April and then replaced by Ryan Giggs on an interim basis.
Giggs then stayed on as an assistant to Louis van Gaal for two years, before Jose Mourinho took over in May of 2016. Meanwhile Klopp very recently surpassed the two year anniversary of his taking over for Brendan Rodgers at LFC.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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