'I COULD HAVE SAID YES TO GERMANY... BUT I COULDN'T LEAVE LIVERPOOL LIKE THAT'

JURGEN Klopp has revealed he turned down an approach from Germany in 2023, admitting he felt he couldn’t leave Liverpool after a disappointing season. The Reds failed to qualify for the Champions League in the 22/33 term under Klopp as they were made to settle for a Europa League spot by ending the campaign in fifth.

- By PAUL GORST

And speaking to Welt in his homeland, the 2020 Premier League champion felt he had a duty to put it right at Anfield when the prospect of the Mannschaft job was put to him two years ago.

“The season before that [final one] didn’t go so well for Liverpool - and in the summer after this season, Germany was looking for a new national coach," Klopp said. “I could have said ‘yes’ because it might have been better to do something different.

“I didn’t want to. And the decision was not about the job of the national coach itself. I couldn’t leave Liverpool like that. There was a team, there were people with whom I had a relationship. I've never been so cold not to remember the good things I said to a player a week earlier.

“We had brought in new players like Endo, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister. With them and the core team, I wanted to fix it again. That was important to me. We managed to do that.

Nevertheless, the decision to stop in Liverpool matured.