Jürgen Klopp on Making the “Right” Choice to Manage Liverpool

When he first signed on, Jürgen Klopp felt like the perfect fit for Liverpool. At least when you asked Liverpool fans. For fans of other clubs, there was always the question of why Klopp would head to Anfield rather than waiting for what might have been a safer option.

Liverpool might be a big club, but they’re a big club that has fallen from their perch at the top of English football and is now regularly outspent by sides like Chelsea and the Manchester clubs. So why, some wondered, didn’t he wait for one of them to come for him?

“Why Liverpool?” Klopp began when asked about his decision to return to management with the Premier League side. “I had an offer of another historical English club two years ago, but I never felt comfortable with how they understood football. It didn’t feel right.”

Klopp didn’t say when or who that other big club was that came in for him—whether it took place in the summer of 2015 following his departure from Borussia Dortmund or if it was in the years before that—but when talking top English sides, there are only so many options.

Whatever it was, precisely, that drew him to Liverpool, though. Klopp knew the club was the right fit for him, the place he wanted to go to and that was worth cutting short his post-Dortmund sabbatical for, but he still can’t exactly put his finger on why exactly that was.

“When Liverpool called, I can’t explain it,” he added. “It was right. Now we have to improve, 100%. But we will. We are fine and the owners are happy. Liverpool is a fantastic club, and my aim is to win the Premier League.”