I
f you thought you knew Jurgen Klopp, think again. In his
office at the club’s Melwood training ground, the Liverpool
manager sat down for a chat with Huyton-born comic,
presenter and ex-non-league footballer John Bishop for the
book A Game of Two Halves.
In a fascinating and revealing conversation, Bishop spoke
to the 52-year-old German about a wide range of topics
including Pep Guardiola, Christianity, restoring Liverpool’s
position at the summit of European football thanks to June’s
Champions League final victory over Tottenham, and who
should eventually replace him in the Anfield dugout.
The proceeds from the book will go to the UN Refugee
Agency, UNHCR, to raise awareness of their work with child
refugees. So, it seemed only natural that Bishop should start
on that subject...BISHOP Thanks for doing this. Do you know what it’s for?
KLOPP Charity? I read the word ‘charity’ and your name and said OK!
BISHOP It’s to raise money for refugee kids, because football is the
most universal game in the world. And it also, to some degree,
reflects what is happening in a country. For example, we have this
dire situation with Brexit and at the same time racism has become a
really big issue in football again.
KLOPP One hundred per cent. A French magazine journalist was
talking to me about racism the other day. He told me that George
Weah and a few other very famous former footballers felt under-
appreciated when it came to awards such as the Ballon d’Or. They
were pretty sure that it was racism. Wow. I couldn’t understand it.
It’s not how I see the world. As far as I’m concerned, the dressing
room is about whether or not you can play football, regardless of your
colour, religion or race. You can either play football or you can’t. That’s
all that matters. The other stuff, nobody thinks about.
We have a prayer room for Mo Salah and Sadio Mané. There are
other Islamic procedures that we respect including washing before a
game, which we include in pre-match preparations. Everybody here
accepts that we are all different, but we are all 100 per cent on the
same page.
BISHOP I think it’s a relatively new thing, particularly for British
football. I remember the abuse John Barnes had when he became a
Liverpool player in 1987. When Howard Gayle became our first black
player 10 years before that, people said, ‘Liverpool don’t sign black
players.’ I’m not saying there was a policy; it’s just that those players
stood out. They were the first ones. Football is now so international,
which is brilliant. A decade ago, I would never have thought there
would be a Muslim player in the Premier League. It was such a white,
working-class game.
KLOPP It’s absolutely true. When I was a player at Mainz, Yugoslavia
collapsed and there were a series of wars in the Balkans. There were
Croatian and Serbian players in the team, alongside those from other
former Yugoslavia countries. They were completely fine with each
other. The only thing they didn’t talk about was the war. They were
playing for Mainz because of the war; they managed to escape it
because they could play football, which meant they had a chance to
make a new life in another country. They watched the news at home,
but whatever the Serbians thought about the Croatians, and vice
versa, never became a problem in the dressing room.
I’m not saying there are no problems out there. Of course there are.
We are all human beings and we have our strengths and weaknesses.
But it’s not about pointing the finger at the weaknesses and saying,
‘That’s why you are different.’“PEOPLE THInK I’M nOT A TACTICIAn
BECAUSE I’M WAY TOO LIVELY TO BE
A TACTICIAn. I’M THE EMOTIOn GUY”
110 The Managers FourFourTwo.comJURGEn
KLOPP