Jürgen Klopp

Jürgen Norbert Klopp (born 16 June 1967) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Liverpool. Often credited with popularizing the football philosophy known as Gegenpressing, Klopp is regarded by many as one of the best managers in the world. As a player, Klopp spent the majority of his career at Mainz 05 in the second tier of German football after signing for the club in 1990. A hard-working and physical player, he was initially deployed as a striker, before converting to play as a defender for the rest of his career. Upon his retirement in 2001, Klopp became the club's manager, leading them to promotion to the Bundesliga in 2004. After suffering relegation in the 2006-07 season and being unable to achieve promotion the following campaign, Klopp resigned at Mainz in 2008, departing as the club's longest-serving manager. Klopp then became manager of Borussia Dortmund, guiding them to the Bundesliga title in 2010-11. The next season Klopp guided Dortmund to their first ever domestic double as they scored a then-record number of points in a season and registered a then record-equal-ling number of wins to win the 2011-12 Bundesliga, and won the DFB-Pokal. In 2013, he guided Dortmund to the UEFA Champions League Final, where they lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich. He left Dortmund in 2015 as their longest-serving manager. Following Brendan Rodgers' dismissal in 2015, Klopp was appointed manager of Liverpool and led them to the finals of that season's EFL Cup and UEFA Europa League, both of which they lost. Klopp has since led the club to successive UEFA Champions League finals; losing 3-1 to Real Madrid in 2018, then winning 2-0 against Tottenham Hotspur in 2019 to secure his first European title. He led Liverpool to second in the 2018-19 Premier League as they scored 97 points, the third-highest total in the history of the English top division and the most points scored by a team without winning the title.