Updated Saturday, January 27, 2024-02:10

In a club as special as Liverpool, distinguished not only by its formidable achievements but also by the liturgical imprint that has always accompanied it,

Jürgen Klopp

already has a place alongside coaches such as

Bill Shankly

,

Bob Paisley

and

Kenny Dalglish

, capital figures at different times in its history. The German coach, who this Friday announced his departure at the end of the season for lacking the energy to continue leading a team he took charge of in 2015, will leave the fans in deep orphanhood when this decision that surprised him is made. to the world of football.

«I love absolutely everything about this club, I love absolutely everything about this city, I love absolutely everything about our fans, I love the team, I love the

staff

. But I make this decision because I am convinced that it is the correct one," he said through the club's website.

If Shankly gave Liverpool an identity and placed it on the continental map, Paisley projected it like no other in Great Britain and Europe and Dalglish reconciled his talent as a footballer with his wisdom from the bench, Klopp returned the lost weight not only with the conquest of its sixth European Cup in the 2018/2019 season, the most prestigious of the seven titles that the team achieved under his direction, but with the return of the government in the English League, denied since 1990 and whose reconquest in 2020 returned to the fans an extra pride in some way comparable to the immense happiness of the Champions League.

The reconstruction

Klopp, who had renewed his contract until 2026, did not want to leave last season, when Liverpool, sixth, did not even obtain a place for the top continental tournament. A lover of great challenges, he preferred to work on rebuilding a team that is currently the leader of the Premier League. He will play this Sunday against Norwich in the fourth round of the FA Cup, after leaving Arsenal behind at home, and will play against Chelsea in the final of the League Cup and is in the second round of the Europa League. "For me it was super,

super important

to be able to help right the ship after a very difficult season," he explained.

«He fit perfectly into the club. He is aggressive, emotional and competitive, but it all takes its toll. The pressure of being the coach of a big club is enormous,” said

Graeme Souness

, one of Liverpool's great midfielders in the 1970s.

Klopp celebrates victory in the 2019AP Champions League final

Yes, Klopp always seemed tailor-made for a team endowed with a footballing and sentimental singularity. A pioneer in distancing itself from the physical and somewhat primary style that prevailed in Great Britain for too long, Liverpool demanded a coach like him, with his own vigorous ideology, a fearless and innovative character that soon made him connect with a social mass. demanding like few others.

Closeness

Despite the logical aura acquired since he arrived on Merseyside after succeeding at Borussia Dortmund, he soon became for many

the boy next door

, the boy from the house next door, the close, natural, committed, possessing technician, in addition, of an irresistible power of seduction. «I am leftist. I believe in the welfare state. I don't have private insurance and I will never vote for anyone who promises to lower taxes on the richest. "If there is something I will never do in my life, it is vote for the right," he said at the beginning of his career in Mainz.

Regardless of what happens until the end of the season, the legacy of Klopp, who communicated his decision to the owners of the entity last November, is unquestionable. His healthy rivalry with

Pep Guardiola,

the head-on clash, completely exciting, with Manchester City, expanded this season with the addition of Arsenal and Aston Villa to the fight for the title, has resized the value of what can be considered the most attractive championship in the world.

“It is not so important what people think when you arrive, but what they think when you leave,” he has as one of his guiding reflections. "He made people happy," reads the motto that accompanies Shankly's effigy at the entrance to the stadium, a sentence that Klopp has earned inheriting. Anfield is already mourning his departure.