Jurgen Klopp

I have supported Manchester United all my life and so have been most unhappy with the ways things have gone since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. The least said about the manner in which the present manager conducts himself the better. How much different Jurgen Klopp the manager of Liverpool. Now Liverpool have always been arch enemies of Man Utd but I have to say that with Mr Klopp as manager I would much prefer Liverpool to win the Championship than say Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal. Why -because Jurgen Klopp comes over as a warm, humorous, generous and likeable man.

Here is an extract from a newspaper article on him:

Jurgen Klopp is a popular figure in Germany because of his outspoken nature and the success he brought to former club Borussia Dortmund, where he won two league titles and got to the final of the European Champions League.

Car brand Opel has also credited him with turning around its fortunes in the country, saying his role as ambassador helped boost sales of its Insignia model by 35% in 2014.

He has even had pop songs written about him with eccentric media personality Matze Knop releasing a tribute titled ‘I Wanna Be Like Jurgen Klopp‘.

But what you might not know about him is that he is a committed Christian and is not afraid of making his faith known.

Prior to managing Borussia Dortmund, Klopp was in charge of another German club, Mainz, and after a defeat was known to have been asked by reporters if the ‘football god’ was against Mainz.

In an article about his faith, he wrote: ‘In order to answer this question once and for all: although there is no football God, I believe that there is a God who loves us humans, just as we are, with all our quirks, and that’s why I think he also loves football! But we have to score our own goals.’

But his piece for fussball-gott.com (soccer-god.com) gets deeper.

‘All of these really likeable guys who I meet week in week out at matches or in some cases even in training, have one thing in common: they have noticed at some stage in their careers that there must be more to life than championship and relegation battles.

‘They relate how a relationship with God has changed their perspective.’

In an age in which each successful new manager is praised for his novel ‘football philosophy’, Klopp is adamant that his faith is more important to him than the game.

In an interview with fr-online.de, he said: ‘To be a believer, but not to want to talk about it – I do not know how it would work! If anyone asks me about my faith, I give information. Not because I have claim to be any sort of missionary. But when I look at me and my life – and I take time for that every day – then I feel I am in sensationally good hands.

Sounds like sensationally good advice to me.

Father Help Me Acknowledge You – featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album ” I Look Up To The Heavens” recorded and produced by John Hodgkinson