Yahoo Sports Jurgen Klopp's legacy at former club 'crumbling' after Red Bull reveal
Liverpool’s iconic former manager Jurgen Klopp recently announced his return to football and it left some Reds surprised, but it left many Borussia Dortmund fans outraged.
On Wednesday morning, the 57-year-old was announced as the new global head of soccer for Red Bull, and this prompted a strong reaction online from the football world.
The German, who announced he would leave Liverpool in January, had been on a break from football since he left the club in June.
Klopp did return to football management for one match last month, a testimonial for some of his former players at Borussia Dortmund, but now he will be returning to football full-time, albeit not on the sideline.
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Borussia Dortmund react to Klopp’s new appointment
Although Klopp hasn’t managed in Germany since he left Dortmund in 2015, the club still had a special connection with the legendary manager.
This relationship is summed up perfectly in a commentary written by Kevin Pinnow for Ruhr Nachrichten, in which he says:
“The people in [Dortmund] idolize the 57-year-old. And they have built an imaginary monument to him here of immeasurable size, which has been crumbling considerably since October 9th.”
BVB fans, more than any others, feel betrayed by Klopp and Pinnow explains this by saying that on a sporting level Klopp “always stood for everything that [Red Bull] with its six professional clubs does not even begin to embody: passion, tradition and pure football romance.”
"Jürgen Klopp is tearing down his BVB monument by moving to Red Bull."
Jurgen Klopp Borussia Dortmund
The German’s appointment probably hits closer to home for BVB fans, who will have to see their club compete directly with a club that is now under the influence of Klopp in RB Leipzig.
If the Red Bull group were the owners of Manchester City for example it would have hit a lot harder for Liverpool fans.
Borussia Dortmund could finally escape Klopp’s shadow
Pinnow does admit that this opportunity is an exciting one for Klopp but called his appointment a ‘slap in the face’ for fans of his former club.
“As strange as it may sound at first, this decision and the slap in the face it brings with it for all BVB fans also has something good for the further development of Borussia Dortmund.”
Pinnow believes that the damage done to Klopp’s legacy could finally stop his successors at Borussia Dortmund being compared to him, saying: “finally breaking away from him is the best thing that could happen to BVB!”
For years Klopp’s achievements have been seen as the benchmark for success in Dortmund, and the same will likely be true at Liverpool until Arne Slot brings silverware to Anfield.
Pinnow’s commentary suggests that BVB have been stuck in the shadow of Klopp since his departure and this is something that Liverpool will definitely want to avoid.
Most of the team that Slot has at his disposal was inherited from his predecessor and Slot himself has admitted that he inherited the club's culture from Klopp too. Despite the obvious Klopp influence on this Liverpool side, Slot will be keen to make this team his own.
The German’s new appointment hasn’t been quite the ‘slap in the face’ to Liverpool supporters as it has been to BVB fans, but it could create just enough distance between the Reds and their iconic manager that Slot can be judged fairly and Liverpool won’t get stuck in the shadow of Jurgen Klopp.
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