called his agency at home and said,
‘Put it out on Twitter,’ and they said,
‘Wait, wait, wait, speak to Jürgen, if he
really wants that?’
“And he was lying outside in socks,
in the rain, on the grass... ‘Jürgen,
Jürgen. Do you really want to do it?’
‘What?’ ‘Do you want to do it?’ ‘Yeah,
of course.’ So bam, it was out. Then it
all started, that was that.
“It pictured the mood we were in.
We were over it. The new season had
started already and it started with
that. It was fine.”
The magic of beer?
“It was not only beer,” Klopp, a firm
believer that it is better to suffer
together than alone, says laughing.
That song was perhaps more
prophetic than tuneful. Liverpool
secured the trophy 12 months later
when beating Tottenham Hotspur in
Madrid, a moment foreseen
immediately before the flight home
the previous year.
“I remember actually only a little
glimpse of light while standing in the
queue at the airport where we had to
go through a security check going to
the plane, and I had this thought
there, ‘Do we come back next year?’ ”
Klopp said. “It wasn’t a clear thought
or idea that from here we will go.
Now we are rock bottom and from
here we can start again like a
phoenix. I really think our
Champions League story so far is a
pretty special one. And it’s to be
continued.” First, in Paris, he hopes,
but also beyond.
It was interesting to hear Klopp
describe Liverpool as being in
transition and that, having signed a
new contract until 2026, part of his
task will be to integrate the
youngsters Curtis Jones, Harvey
Elliott and the new signing Fabio
Carvalho, who joined from Fulham
this week, more fully. That will
inevitably mean phasing others out.
“What I am really happy about is
that we are in the transformation —
not a transformation like ‘bam’ [clicks
fingers] — it’s more slight,” he said.
“We have another young exciting
player coming in with Fab [Carvalho],
we have Harvey and Curtis. To have
these boys around for this transition
is important.
“We have a wonderful squad but it’s
natural that a few things will change.
Not now, but in the future, and I
think then it makes sense that I’m
around. Imagine if you bring in a new
manager who says to four or five,
‘Thanks for what you did for the club,
but maybe it’s time for you to go now.’
“It’s not now, it’s not next year, but
it might be in two or three years or
whatever, and it really makes sense
that the right people are doing that.’are at the same level. I want us to
completely be ourselves in this game.
“If we are on the top of our game
we are difficult to play against and
that is my only concern at the
moment — that we be ourselves.
“The world we are living in means
we get judged by the final result. If
you are a football person then you
know what my boys have done this
season so far is absolutely exceptional
but, of course, in the end it is all
measured by the colour of the medal.”
Mané will spearhead Liverpool’s
attack and has said he will clarify his
future after the final amid interest
from Bayern, who are willing to pay
about £25 million for a player with a
year left on his contract. Liverpool are
likely to demand a higher fee and
would want a replacement in place
before allowing him to leave.
“This is the wrong moment to
speak about that,” Klopp, who was
boosted by Fabinho and Thiago
Alcântara both training yesterday,
said. “Wherever Sadio will play next
season, he will be a big player.”we are at the same level as Real’
the times | Saturday May 28 2022 1GG 3
Goalscorers
Liverpool
Mohamed Salah
Sadio Mané
Roberto Firmino
Luis Díaz
Ibrahima Konaté
Jordan Henderson
Fabinho
Diogo Jota
Thiago Alcântara
Naby Keita
Divock OrigiReal Madrid
Karim BenzemaRodrygo
Vinícius Junior
Toni Kroos
David Alaba
Marco Asensio8155
3
2
1
15 5 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1All-time head to headLiverpool
3 winsReal Madrid
4 wins1 drawEuropean Cup wins by country18
14
12
8 6 4 1 1 1 1Spain
England
Italy
Germany
Netherlands
Portugal
France
Romania
Scotland
YugoslaviaRecord in European Cup finalsLiverpool
WinsRunners-upReal madrid6 13
3 3
Finals in ParisReal Madrid 4 Reims 3
Parc des Princes
Bayern Munich 2 Leeds United 0
Parc des Princes
Liverpool 1 Real Madrid 0
Parc des Princes
Real Madrid 3 Valencia 0
Barcelona 2 Arsenal 11956197519812000
2006thegame
Mohamed Salah and his Liverpool
team-mates flew into Paris yesterdayHow night drowning
sorrows sowed seeds
of Klopp’s success
Campino and Klopp sing their lament
that became an unlikely Twitter hitPAU L
J OYC EAs Jürgen Klopp recalls, all that was
required to coax him from the misery
induced by one of the worst nights of
his life was a glass vase pilfered from
a guest toilet in Steven Gerrard’s old
house and sing-song with a German
rock star. There was, he admitted,
some beer consumed as well.
The retreat from Kyiv after
Liverpool’s Champions League final
with Real Madrid in 2018 had been
particularly painful. Not simply for
Mohamed Salah, whose shoulder was
in a sling, or Loris Karius,
inconsolable after his costly mistakes,
but also for the Liverpool manager,
who had suffered defeat in his sixth
consecutive final, when his time at
Borussia Dortmund is factored in.
A charter flight landed at John
Lennon International Airport at 6am
the morning after the night before and,
after the dejected group had arrived at
the club’s training ground, a small
party of guests proceeded to Klopp’s
house in Formby, which had belonged
to Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers.
Smiling at the memory, the
Liverpool manager takes up the story.
“It started as one of the worst nights
in my life. The flight was obviously
horrendous. The feeling was down,”
he said. “The families were in another
plane, and the worst moment was still
to come — facing family and friends.
“When we arrived at Melwood on
our bus, all the wives, girlfriends,
friends, everybody was crying.
Unbelievable.
“We were not crying. I cry quite
frequently in these similar situations,
but not that day as I was OK, kind of.
It was a football game, there were
strange circumstances, but everybody
was crying. My agent [Marc Kosicke]
was crying. I was going, ‘Eh, what’s
going on?’
“It was now morning pretty much
and then we went to the house and
let a few people in. You know it’s the
former house of Stevie G, so a little
bit of the furniture was still in there.
“There was a big vase in the guest
toilet, and Peter Krawietz [Liverpool’s
assistant manager] goes in the toilet
and comes out [Klopp motions to lift
a big vase like a trophy above his
head] and goes, ‘Yes! It looks like the
Champions League trophy a little bit.’
Everybody took it and had pictures
with it here and there, ‘Ah that’s how
it feels.’ ”
Among the guests was Klopp’s
friend and Liverpool supporter,
Campino [real name Andreas Frege],
who is the lead singer of the German
band Die Toten Hosen. As the drinks
flowed, a chant emerged: “We saw the
European Cup, Madrid had all the
f***ing luck, we’ll just keep on being
cool, and bring it back to Liverpool.”
Klopp, Krawietz and Campino, with
a runners-up medal round his neck,
would sing it over and over again,
bouncing up and down, as the scene
was filmed on a mobile phone.
“Then somebody said, ‘We have to
put that out, the world needs that as
well,’ ” Klopp said. “It’s not a good
moment when you are slightly drunk
to make a decision like that. CampinoNorthern Football Correspondent