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There’s something of a running joke pertaining to how Bayern Munich manage to dominate the Bundesliga year in, year out. Their winning formula goes like this:
- Identify who and what makes Borussia Dortmund so dangerous.
- Steal them away with promises of more money and silverware.
- Repeat as necessary.
It’s a funny joke. Unless you’re a Borussia Dortmund fan. As it is, BVB fans went into their 2013 Champions League Final against Dortmund knowing they were losing Mario Götze and probably Robert Lewandowski to their hated rivals. (Lewandowski would ultimately leave a season later, on a free.) Dortmund fans had pretty clear reasons to despise Bayern— they poached all their best talent.
Apparently, this wasn’t just confined to players. While he was still on sabbatical after leaving Dortmund at the end of the previous season a year ago, Jürgen Klopp and Bayern Munich were making overtures at each other. Bayern were apparently considering him as a replacement for Pep Guardiola should he decide to leave at the end of the season, although it apparently wasn’t a definite thing at the time. And Klopp, reportedly, was willing to hear them out.
Lucky for us, he decided against Bayern, in no small part because he didn’t want to be kept waiting until January or whenever Pep made up his mind. And then Liverpool approached him, and the rest was history. Klopp came to Anfield, and we’re all still quite taken with him. Pep went to City, and the two will face each other again in the Premier League later this season. And Bayern landed Carlo Ancelotti, which is a good fit for both parties. Everybody wins!
Right?
… right?
Apparently, Bayern are already looking past Ancelotti and are lining up eventual successors. And at the top of their list? Take a wild guess.
Klopp reportedly doesn’t have any immediate interest in leaving Liverpool. He’s only been here a year, things are going well, and he just signed a 6-year contract extension over the summer.
Yet Bayern is one of those clubs that’s accustomed to getting what it wants.
“Jurgen is very highly thought of there,” says an unnamed source at Bayern. “He will top the list of candidates to be the next coach.”
So, who knows. Everyone has a price in football, and who knows where all parties will be a year or two down the line.
If you have any harebrained schemes to keep Klopp here at Anfield, feel free to leave them in the comments.