Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp announced he would be leaving the Anfield club at the end of the 2023/24 season. His final match in charge came on the final day of the Premier League season, at home to Wolves.
The shock announcement came with Liverpool on top of the Premier League table in January and chasing their second English title of the Klopp era. In the end, their bid to be crowned champions again in 2024 fell short.
Still, as the ceremony to honour his time in charge following the Wolves game showed, Klopp will be forever remembered as a Liverpool great. His reign over Merseyside saw the Reds march to glory in the pandemic-interrupted 2019/20 season, when they finished as champions with 99 points — the second-highest total in Premier League history.
That ended Liverpool's 30-year wait for a 19th English title. Klopp's side, featuring modern Premier League greats such as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk, also broke through the 90-point barrier in the 2018/19 and 2021/22 seasons, only to be pipped on the final day by Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.
But now his time has come to an end.
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The news hit Liverpool fans hard, but it also sent reverberations around the Premier League.
Guardiola and Klopp's dugout joust has proved to be the defining rivalry of its time in English football. In 2018, Liverpool dumped City out of the Champions League en route to a final defeat against Real Madrid in Kyiv.
They also lost to Los Blancos in the 2022 final, but Klopp made sure of Liverpool's sixth European crown when they defeated Tottenham 2-0 at Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in 2019.
That success facilitated glory in the 2019 editions of the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Liverpool also won the domestic knockout double of the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in 2020/21.
Liverpool picked up another trophy as they overcame Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final in February and Klopp this season has pieced together a youthful exciting team featuring the likes of Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and a rejuvenated Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Having joined the club in October 2015, he offered a clear explanation for his pending departure when speaking to Liverpool’s in-house media team on January 26.
"I will leave the club at the end of the season. I can understand that it's a shock for a lot of people in this moment when you read it for the first time," he said.
"Obviously I can explain it or at least try to explain it. I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about this city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything.
"That I still take this decision probably shows you that I'm convinced it’s the one I have to take. It is that I'm… how can I say… I'm running out of energy.
"I have no problem now. I think I know it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point. But I'm absolutely fine now, but I also know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.
"After all the years we had together and all the time we spent together, all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you and the love grew for you. The least I owe you is the truth. And that’s the truth."
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The Reds had expected to reach the Europa League final in Dublin, which takes place on May 22, but their shock exit at the hands of Atalanta has denied Klopp a potential fairytale sendoff.
That meant Klopp's last game in charge came on the closing Premier League day of the season at home to Wolves on Sunday, May 19 — an emotional occasion at Anfield.
How old is Jurgen Klopp?
Klopp is 56 years old. He was born on June 16, 1967, in Stuttgart, Germany.
He was 48 when he took over as Liverpool manager.
When did Jurgen Klopp join Liverpool?
Klopp was announced as the new Liverpool manager on October 8, 2015. He replaced Brendan Rodgers, who was sacked just four days earlier.
Klopp's first match in charge was on October 17, when the Reds drew 0-0 with Tottenham in the Premier League.
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Is Jurgen Klopp retiring? Jurgen Klopp's next job
Klopp is certainly set for a prolonged period out of the game, meaning initial predictions that he could take charge of Germany after Euro 2024 are wide of the mark.
He does not see another Premier League job in his future and told Liverpool's official website that the Anfield job could be his last, while not ruling out a return to management.
"If you ask me, 'Will you ever work as a manager again?' I would say now 'no'. But I don't know obviously how that will feel because I never had the situation," he said. "What I know definitely – I will never, ever manage a different club in England than Liverpool, 100%. That's not possible. My love for this club, my respect for the people is too big. I couldn't. I couldn't for a second think about it. There's no chance.
"This is part of my life, we are part of the family, we feel at home here. There's no chance to do that. But all the rest, will I ever work again? Of course, I know myself, I cannot just sit around. I will find something else maybe to do. But I will not manage a club or a country at least for a year, that's not possible, I cannot do that and I don't want to."