The last seven months, Jurgen Klopp said with a revealing smile, had been idyllic. A lot of paddle tennis, a fitness regime that allowed him to lose a few kilos and even the possibility of indulging in his passion for skiing. He went to Switzerland and “loved it.”
“It's been nice,” Klopp said. “We found a corner where we could hide.”
But on Tuesday there was nowhere to hide at Red Bull's Hangar-7, an innovative exhibition space located next to the runway at Salzburg Airport. No. Klopp was back in the public eye, answering all kinds of queries from 200 media outlets, but it made you wonder: Why here? Why now?
Klopp began working as Red Bull's global director of football on January 1, having been appointed last October. He will be responsible for driving sustained progress in an organization that has teams in Austria, Germany, France, Japan, the United States and Brazil and his role means the quiet life is over.
And it also means that there is pressure. A little story from earlier this week when Chalerm Yoovidhya, one of the co-owners of Red Bull, walked into an office with a photo of Klopp holding up the Champions League and, wryly, told him: “When will we win one of are?” '
“Seven months ago, when I finished at Liverpool, I said I was no longer the right man for the job,” Klopp said. 'But I never said I wouldn't work more. The opportunity to come and do this developed pretty quickly. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be a part of it.'
Jurgen Klopp marked the official start of his role at Red Bull with a conversation with the media
After winning the Champions League with his Liverpool team, the Red Bull hierarchy will be hoping he brings the same magic to their European teams, including RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg.
Klopp started on January 1 and a week later was eyeing Paris FC's pending takeover.
He meant it. Some may wonder how this new world fits in with Klopp's vision of life. Here he was, sitting on a stage flanked by two Red Bull Formula One cars, with a Red Bull helicopter behind him and drinking from a rebranded can of the sponsor's product after three questions.
There is no doubt that as an organization within the sport, Red Bull attracts criticism and Klopp knows, by association, that scrutiny will come to him too. However, one thing that cannot be doubted about this 57-year-old is the fact that he has an inquisitive mind and a thirst to try different things in order to improve.
That's why he brought in world champion surfer Sebastian Steudtner to talk to Liverpool players in the summer of 2019, ahead of what turned out to be a title-winning campaign, about marginal gains; That's why one day he hopes to get inside the brain of Red Bull's most famous athlete.
“I want to find out how Mr (Max) Verstappen has so much concentration when he drives at 300mph,” Klopp said. “He goes into a 180-degree turn, he controls it and he performs under that pressure and he's still in his best mental shape.” Give me that information and I will try to transfer it to football.
“I've never been to a Formula One race, I've watched a few on TV. I've never been to a world championship ski race. I'm a sports maniac and I have a lot of these things on my bucket list to talk to. people. You have to be innovative. The power is out there with different knowledge.
'I want to help young people develop. I had a lot of meetings last week, and on virtually every occasion I was the oldest person in the room. There is room for better decisions. I see myself as an advisor. In my opinion, I want us to be special. “We'll see what we can do.”
Many will wonder if this is simply a scenario to negotiate before he is inevitably sidelined again. During the 90 minutes, he took on the role of head coach as he lamented the amount of football on the schedule and came to life preaching about counterpressing.
RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg have endured difficult campaigns (the Austrians sacked Klopp's former Liverpool assistant, Pep Lijnders, in December) and how tempting would it be for his bosses to simply ask him to step up and take charge?
The former coach is interested in picking the brain of Red Bull star athlete Max Verstappen.
He also stressed that he is interested in sport as a whole and not just football.
But one of his first tasks will be to help transform the fortunes of Salzburg, where his former assistant Pep Lijnders (above) has just been sacked after a disappointing start to the season.
Klopp was tempted back to work by Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff (right)
“That won't happen,” he said firmly. 'I will not be the coach of any Red Bull team. I will not replace any Red Bull coach. That is a total commitment, as much as it can be said that I will not be a coach at all. This means a lot to me, it's a new beginning – it opens a new chapter for me and my family.
'People only know me as a football fan, but I am a sportsman. What I love is the variety of different sports and that's why it was an easy decision for me. It is adventurous, innovative and exciting. I wanted to be part of it and now I am.'
He knows how people will receive what he says, but there was no reason to doubt anything Klopp stated about having no regrets about moving away from Liverpool, even though he is watching the team he helped build move towards a position in the that they can win another title.
Similarly, the idea of coaching Germany is ruled out for the foreseeable future, as he praised Julian Nagelsmann, who he hopes will lead his nation for the next 10 years and “so why can't he have another 20 at a club?” ? ? He is still quite young.
No, Klopp is convinced that it is the right move at the right time and only this role, which was convincingly sold to him by Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull's executive director of Corporate Projects, would have brought him out of the solitude of the sun and the sun. padel. .
“The only thing I did differently before was working with one club,” Klopp said. 'Now we have some more. In my opinion, I want us to be special. I really want to help people experience that. “I think it's a real challenge, but that's what we're trying to do.”