Klopp camp speaks out over Bayern job rumours

Robin Bairner

• 21 Feb 2024 12:55 GMT
• 3 min read

Jurgen Klopp has been linked to the soon-to-be vacant Bayern Munich post following the announcement that Thomas Tuchel will be stepping aside at the end of the season.

Klopp started a trend of managers announcing their imminent departures when he declared last month that he would be standing down as Liverpool boss in the summer – a choice that FootballTransfers exclusively revealed he was seriously considering last summer.

Since then, Xavi revealed that he will leave Barcelona while Tuchel became the latest big-name boss to announce their departure when on Wednesday it was declared that he would leave Bayern.

A flurry of speculation has been kicked off by the statement, with Xabi Alonso quickly established as the favoured candidate of Bayern to return to the club. The former Spain midfielder is, of course, closely linked with replacing Klopp at Liverpool.

But while there is uncertainty over who takes these posts, what is certain is that it won’t be Klopp.

Speaking to Sky Sports Deutschland, his agent Marc Kosicke said: “Jurgen Klopp will not coach any club or national team for a year after this current season. That remains unchanged.”

With Klopp evidently out of the picture, Bayern’s determination to land Alonso, who looks set to end their 11-year dominance of the Bundesliga with a Leverkusen side that has never previously won the title, will only increase.

Klopp speculation will not go away

Kosicke’s words, meanwhile, are unlikely to stop Klopp being associated with any high-profile vacancies that come up, with the success of the German at Anfield inevitably seeing him big jobs across Europe.

This promises to be Klopp’s first significant hiatus from the game since taking charge of Mainz in 2001. He spent seven years there before moving to Dortmund, where he was in charge for another seven years before switching to Liverpool in 2015.