Colin Sheridan: The ever evolving genius of Jürgen Norbert Klopp

Jürgen Norbert Klopp. Those who follow the football club he manages, revere him.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp celebrates after winning the Emirates FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London. Photo credit: Adam Davy/PA Wire.

Mon, 16 May, 2022 - 07:15

Colin Sheridan is a writer and columnist. A former officer in the Irish Defence Forces he has extensive deployment experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations, having lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

Jürgen Norbert Klopp. Those who follow the football club he manages, revere him.

Those who support all the other clubs he does not, wish he was theirs. He is the darling of the media and housewives alike. For an industry notoriously suspicious of foreigners, the English football industrial complex venerates him as both visionary and saviour. He is loved by his players and respected by his adversaries. In a city of working class heroes, he sits on Liverpool's Mount Rushmore alongside Shankly, McCartney and Lennon. He does so earning €10m a year, and, in a further unlikely twist, being German. One wonders if Vladimir Zelenskyy chose to model his leadership style on anybody, did he perhaps choose Jürgen Norbert? Swapping Saville Row suits for battle fatigues. Eschewing talk of soft exile in lieu of digging trenches with his troops.