Jurgen Klopp has announced he will leave his position as Liverpool manager at the end of the season, saying he is “running out of energy.”
Klopp, 56, has brought huge success to Liverpool arriving at Anfield in 2015, steering the club to the Premier League title in 2020 and Champions League in 2019. But this will be his final campaign in charge, announcing on Friday he will depart at the end of the season.
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Klopp will now take a break from management and said he will not manage a club or country for at least a year. He also said he will never manage another club in England other than Liverpool.
“I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it, or at least try to explain it,” Klopp said in a video statement released by Liverpool.
“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.
“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.”
He added: “If you ask me now if I will ever manage again? I would say no. But you don’t know obviously as I’ve never had this situation. But I do know definitely I will never manage a different club in England than Liverpool. It is impossible.
“I will find something else to do. But I will not manage a club or country for at least a year.”
In an emotional statement, Klopp said he owed Liverpool supporters an explanation for why he is stepping back now. He said it was a hard decision but also felt “relief” when he made it, saying it’s the right moment for him to try a “normal life” and see if he misses management.
“It would be cool if you can accept my decision as a hard one, but the right one,” Klopp said. “I need to find a different purpose and look for it.”
“I told the club already in November,” he added. “I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things. That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already.
“When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore’ and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously start thinking about it.
