Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to quit club at end of season

Jurgen Klopp will leave his post as Liverpool boss at the end of the season.

The German, who has held the reins at Anfield since 2015, winning the club a first Premier League title in 2020 and a sixth Champions League crown in 2019, announced the shock update following his side’s victory over Fulham in the Carabao Cup semi-final.

Klopp, who is contracted until 2026, says he is “running out of energy” to do the job to the best of his ability and quitting is a decision he is “convinced” is the right one to take.

The Reds manager, who informed club chiefs of his intentions to leave in November, said: “I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.”

Klopp revolutionised Liverpool when he took over from Brendan Rodgers in 2015 and quickly introduced his Gegenpress, ‘heavy metal football’ style of play.

Over the next few years, Liverpool went from sleeping giants to genuine title contenders, impressing first on the European stage with victory over Tottenham in the 2019 Champions League final.

Premier League glory still eluded the Reds, with the club title-less since its inception in 1992. But Klopp righted this wrong for the Kop by bringing home the trophy in 2020.

Klopp added: “I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things. That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already.

“When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore’ and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously start thinking about it.