Jurgen Klopp announces final retirement from football at 57

German coach Jurgen Klopp announced his definitive retirement from football on Wednesday at the age of 57. The coach had already surprised everyone by announcing in January that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the European season.

“That’s it for me as a coach today. I didn’t quit on impulse, but it was a general decision. Besides, I have coached the best clubs in the world,” Klopp said at the international football coaches’ congress, held on Wednesday in Germany.

Klopp had left Liverpool at the end of the season after nine years in charge of the team. He had made it clear in his statements that he did not intend to manage any club again. Today’s announcement confirmed that possibility.

A message to Liverpool supporters from Jürgen Klopp. pic.twitter.com/l7rtmxgOzt

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 26, 2024

The German has only coached three professional teams in his career: in addition to Liverpool in England, he also coached Mainz and Borussia Dortmund in Germany. With all of these clubs, he won a Champions League title, a Club World Cup, an English Championship, an FA Cup, two German Championships, a German Cup, among other less important titles.

Klopp began his career at Mainz, the club that signed him in February 2002. He did not win any titles at the club, but he remained for eight years until transferring to Borussia Dortmund in 2008.

Klopp’s work at the helm of Dortmund was highly regarded, just before Bayern Munich’s period of dominance in Germany. In addition to two German titles and the World Cup, the coach was runner-up in the Champions League, losing to Bayern in 2013.

In 2015, he was signed by Liverpool, where he would go down in history as one of the biggest clubs in the world. With the Reds, in addition to continental and World Cup titles, Klopp won the club’s first English Championship in 30 years in 2019, facing Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.