Jurgen Klopp recounts hilarious tale from his time as a Dortmund Manger back in 2011 right before the match against Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.
Jurgen Klopp is very quickly becoming every neutral football fan’s favourite manager in the world. He took Liverpool to back to back Champions league finals and managed to win one last season. However, it is his personality that makes it hard even for rival fans to despise the German.
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Jurgen Klopp’s rise may seem sudden. However, his success is a result of him laying the groundwork since his arrival. Always at work without all the hoopla until the results start getting too loud to ignore; And this isn’t even the first time he’s done something like this.
Jurgen Klopp recounts hilarious story from his time as a Dortmund Manger back in 2011
Klopp joined Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga back in 2008. Through smart signings and dedicated man management, Klopp built a team that would go on and break Bayern’s stronghold in the German league back in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
In an interview with Players Tribune, Klopp recalled a time from his time at Dortmund. He spoke about how players and managers were often likened to gods. In reality however, they were just as fallible as anyone else in the world.
Klopp went back in time to narrate the events before their match against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. They hadn’t beaten the Bavarians at their home ground in about 20 years. Klopp, who takes a lot of inspiration from movies, attempted to use Rocky IV to inspire his young side.
So, the night before we played Bayern, I gathered all my players at the hotel for our team talk. The boys were all sitting down. All the lights were off. I told them the truth of the situation: “The last time Dortmund won in Munich, most of you were still in your Pampers.” Klopp said of the night.
Then I started playing some scenes from Rocky IV on the video screen. The one with Ivan Drago. A classic, in my opinion.
Klopp likened Drago to Bayern Munich. The team that had the best of everything while comparing Dortmund to Rocky.
And I told the boys, “You see? That’s us. We are Rocky. We are smaller, yes. But we have the passion! We have the heart of a champion! We can do the impossible!!!!!” He continued.
I was going on and on, and then at some point, I look out to all my boys to see their reaction. I was expecting them to be standing up on their chairs, ready to go run up a mountain in Siberia, going absolutely crazy.
Nonsense speech!
Unfortunately for Klopp, his speech was met with absolute silence before he realised his error.
So, then I realised, Wait, when did Rocky IV come out, 1980-something? When were these boys born?
Finally, I said, “Wait a minute, boys. Please raise your hand if you know who is Rocky Balboa?”
Only two hands went up. Sebastian Kehl and Patrick Owomoyela.
Everyone else, “Nope, sorry, boss.”
My entire speech — nonsense! This is the most important match of the season. Maybe the most important match of some of the players’ lives. And the manager has been screaming about Soviet technology and Siberia for the last 10 minutes! Hahahaha! Can you believe this?
I will never forget about them…
Klopp would then go on to beautifully end the story. A tale of memories he would take with him till the end of days even if the details were a little off here and there.
You see, this is the real story. This is what actually happens in life. ‘’Klopp Said. We are human beings. Sometimes, we embarrass ourselves. That’s how it is. We think we’re giving the greatest speech in the history of football, and we’re actually talking complete nonsense. But we get up the next morning and we go again.
Do you know what is the strangest part of that story?
I honestly cannot be sure if we won or lost the match. I am pretty sure that I gave this speech in 2011 before we won 3–1, and that certainly makes for a much better story! But I can’t be 100% sure.
This is one thing about football that people don’t always understand.
The results, you forget. You get them all mixed up.
But those boys, and that time in my life, and those little stories … I will never forget them.
Klopp would go on to lead Borussia Dortmund to a Champions League final appearance against Bayern Munich a couple of years later. Unfortunately for him, it was the team from Bavaria that came out on top. However, Klopp would eventually get his hands on the title earlier this year.
In his own words, he had finally knocked Drago. He woke up the next morning and it was still true. It really happened.
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