JURGEN KLOPP was once mocked on television for playing in a ‘canteen’ football team.
The Liverpool boss returns to the small screen tomorrow night in a documentary charting his rise to Premier League–winning manager.
Jurgen Klopp was mocked on a German quiz game show in 1995
But back in 1995 he was a figure of fun rather than success when he appeared on the German version of Saturday night gameshow Lose A Million.
At the time nobody — even Klopp himself — could have imagined how far he would go in football. Certainly not the host of Verlieren Sie Millionen, who asked him who he was and what he did.
On Klopp’s reply that he played for Mainz in Bundesliga 2, the live audience roared with laughter as he was told: “So, a canteen team then!”
Klopp laughed with them — then almost brought the house down when he was set a series of quiz questions.
The aim of the show was to get the answers in the wrong order. But when asked who was the heir to the English throne, he declared: “Buddha.”
Next came a question about Hollywood blockbuster 9½ Weeks, featuring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger.
When asked who ‘played around’ with Basinger in front of a fridge in the movie, he replied: “Prince Charles!”
In the end, of course, it was Klopp who had the last laugh as he became Mainz manager and then won back-to-back Bundesliga titles as boss of Borussia Dortmund.
KLOPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Now, having also won the Champions League last year with Liverpool, he basks in the glory of being the club’s first boss to lift the English top-flight title in 30 years.
He arrived at Anfield in October 2015 insisting he was ‘The Normal One’ and the clips from his gameshow appearance prove he never did take himself too seriously.
In the documentary Jurgen Klopp: Germany’s Greatest Export, which airs at 10pm on Channel 4 tomorrow, Sir Kenny Dalglish insists that attitude made the Liverpool fans take him to their hearts.
Dalglish, the last Reds boss to win the league before Klopp, says: “When he was appointed everyone was really excited.
“And he nailed himself to the people when he said, ‘I’m the normal one’, because that’s what the Liverpool people are.
“They just want people to be normal, very good at their job but don’t need it slammed in their face every two minutes.
Jurgen Klopp had the last laugh after lifting the Premier LeagueCredit: EPA
“It’s important the club has a feelgood factor. Jurgen certainly brought that in and that’s the way it used to be at Liverpool.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that that was when it was successful as well.
“One area where Jurgen is brilliant is: ‘It is not about me, me, me. It is about us, it is about Liverpool, it is about the supporters’.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
