THE PREM ERA 23JURGEN KLOPP
O
ver the next few months, no
figure in the German game
is going to be busier than
Marc Kosicke – the agent,
PR and business advisor and confidante
ofJurgen Klopp,the mostwanted coach
on the European circuit today.
While his superstar client takes a fully
deserved sabbatical after14 seasons on
the technical area treadmill with Mainz
and Borussia Dortmund, former Nike
executive Kosicke is beavering away in
the background on the next phase of
Klopp’s stellar career.
Since sensationally quitting Dortmund
last spring Klopp’s name has been linked
at one time or another with more or
less every leading side. And wherever
the 48-year-old Stuttgarter ends up,
that club will be in for the ride of its
life: an adrenaline-fuelled journey of
breakneck attacking football, youthful
dash and daring, plus holy communion
of team and fan base.
During his seven-year tenure in
Dortmund, Klopp went much further
than sporting success (two Bundesliga
titles, a German Cup and 2013
Champions League silver medal). He
excited, he enthused, he challenged;
and by the end of the process, he had
changed the Yellow-and-Blacks forever.
The term “project” has become
something of a tired corporate-football
cliché, but for Klopp it really does have
substance. It means empire-building
with a human touch, and a large dash
of local community identification.
After Dortmund’s brush with
bankruptcy in the early part of the
new millennium, and several seasons of
stagnation on the pitch, the charismatic
Klopp was just the man to breath new
life into their moribund operation. Andthis ability to freshen the stale is just
what his latest slew of suitors crave.
“At the beginning of my working
relationship withJurgen, I naturally
didn’t know how it would develop with
him,”Kosicke saidin aninterviewwith
Die Weltnewspaper this summer. “I
simply found him to be exceptional
in his human qualities and energy.
“I’m often amazed by how much
drive he has. It’s inspiring to see his
comprehensive vision of a team. His
first instinct is to see players as people.”
Klopp’s evolution into one of the
world’s best coaches was no accident.
Brought up by his father, Norbert, to
aim high in a range of sports, he had an
early taste of the pursuit of excellence.
Even as a teenager he was thinking
ahead, going out of his way to join TuS
Ergenzingen, the club reputed to have
the best youth system in the Black
Forest region.
While playing for Eintracht Frankfurt’s
reserves, the 21-year-old Klopp would
spend much of his spare time coaching
the club’s schoolboys. Throughout his
11-year career as a forward or full-
back at second division Mainz he was
a figure of considerable influence –
dressing-room voice of reason, line
of communication between squad
and management and intelligent
reader of the game.
Senior pro Klopp and Mainz coach
Wolfgang Frank were both admirers of
the dynamic, all-conquering Milan side
that Arrigo Sacchi assembled in the late
1980s, and it’s no coincidence that so
many elements of the Sacchi/Frank
bible – the flat back four, zonal marking,
aggressive pressing, lightning-quick
transitions and long training-ground
routines without the ball – remainkey tenets of the Klopp credo.
Mainz’s appointment of Klopp in
February 2001 was one of the first
examples of a German club handing
the first-team reins to one of its players.
It might haveseemed a panicky move
for a club deep in relegation trouble and
one that had consumed five coaches
in the previous12 months. But using
Frank’s methods as his guide and
adding his way with words to the
mix, he managed to save the day,
going on to steer the club to the
Bundesliga three years later.
“He’s just a natural talent,” enthused
Mainz general manager Christian Heidel.
So on which club’s peg will Klopp
hang his baseball cap next? Inevitably,
he and Kosicke are playing their cards
close to their chests, with the only
concrete indicators being the clubs
he definitely will not join.
In the wake of Swiss Lucien
Favre’s departure from Borussia
Monchengladbach, Kosicke moved
swiftly to rubbish rumours that Klopp
was in the running for the job. And it
was the same response in August when
Marseille attempted to get him in as a
replacement for Marcelo Bielsa.
On the face of it, OM might
have been a snug fit, sharing plenty
of common ground with the Dortmund
that he took over in 2008 – a former
Champions League winner in distress,
a club with bags of tradition, the army
of passionate fans.
Marseille president Vincent Labrune
would have made him the king of the
castle and tended to his every whim.
Yet Klopp still was happy to just carry
on recharging his batteries
“Jurgen is in great shape at the
moment,” Kosicke toldDie Welt.OCTOBER 2015: Jurgen Klopp may be enjoying a sabbatical
from football after a successful spell at Borussia Dortmund,but that has not stopped a coterie of European clubs
attempting to convince the German to join their club
wanted man
Europe’s most
Words:Nick BidwellTHE PREM ERA 23