Feature23 stories that show Jürgen Klopp's genius, compassion and humour

As Liverpool bids farewell to its multifaceted boss after nine years at Anfield, read 23 first-hand anecdotes that show Klopp as the brilliant manager, entertainer and loving human being he is…

Thomas Gronnemark, throw-in coach who worked with Liverpool from 2018 to 2023: "He had realised the big weakness of the team was throw-ins where they were 18th out of 20th in the Premier League on throw-ins under pressure. At that point he probably didn't know the exact numbers but he could see it was a really big weakness.

"A lot of people with a lot of power have a tendency to think, 'We can do it ourselves, we can change it ourselves.' Jürgen was really courageous to call me. He really had courage inviting a guy in who was – at least in international football – totally unknown. You have to be really courageous or have a lot of trust in other people to invite new people in. You can say that was a common theme in my five years at Liverpool."

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Sebastian Steudtner, world-record surfer who was invited to host a team meeting ahead of 2019-20: "Jürgen and I had lunch and talked about the story of our lives. We just kind of left it at that and then Jürgen reached out at some point and said, 'Hey, do you want to come and join the training camp in France?'

"We had a lot of similarities in our approach, which is not having [blinkers on] but just being open for different approaches, for learning and not being stuck in our own bubble, sport or what has been before. He's free in making his decisions not based on what's normal but based on what he thinks is an improvement or would help.

"I thought it would be a great idea to take them [the players] out of their environment and to do something that challenges them. So to be thrown in a pool and have to hold your breath for as long as you can is a huge challenge mentally.

"There were some that went from 10 seconds to a minute-and-a-half. Then there were others who went from a minute to almost four minutes. I think the longest was close to four minutes or even a little bit more than four minutes, which is a long, long time underwater. The mindset of some were like, 'We can't really do it.' Then they realised they could do it and really, really started pushing it."

Sir Alex Ferguson after Liverpool clinched the Premier League title in June 2020: "I tried to get hold of him and left a message. Then he phoned me at three in the morning! My phone's going, I'm grasping at the side of the bed, the table at the bedside. He'd had a good night and said thanks for your message – I thought he probably doesn't know the time! Unbelievable. But at least he returned the call!"

Nathaniel Phillips: "He looked after me wherever he could. Even with my first loan, he said he wasn't satisfied with the options that I had on the table. [He] went away and had a conversation with someone that he knew. That's what gave me that opportunity in Germany. That's just one example of a number of things he's done for me personally and how much I owe to him."

Ragnar Klavan on speaking with Klopp ahead of his 2016 transfer from Augsburg: "He started talking and I thought it was a prank call. He said, 'I'm going to send you a selfie to confirm I am who I am.' He sent one from his car and he was wearing his trademark cap."

Thomas Tuchel, who led Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea sides against Klopp's Liverpool: "I think he is so smart in his decision-making. I would love to have this skill! Everywhere he goes you feel like, 'Yeah, of course, it's his club, of course it's the perfect fit, of course they will love each other, they will fall in love with each other.'

"You will always play against his aura. You will always play against the energy that he transports to his teams. You will always face a team that is on from the first second and will not stop until they are all in the shower. You can never be sure of anything. You will always play against the energy of the stadium if he wakes them up, if it's not enough for him. So, yeah it's so difficult and so nice to play against him because it brings out the best in yourself."

Paul Amann, founder of Kop Outs, who sat down with Klopp after an incident of homophobic chanting during a match at Norwich City: "He chose to do something. He had a very clear sense that, 'Let's give it a go because it's a rubbish chant, it's a lot of nonsense and let's see if I can add my weight to it.' He didn't have to do that. He was very warm in his humanity but he wanted to get the messaging right, he wanted to say things in a way that were aligned with us as LGBT+ fans but not artificial.

"He just wanted to make sure he was very, very on board with not having us as LGBT+ fans having any problems. He wanted us to be able to enjoy the game. Truly remarkably, we've gone from 10 years ago thousands of people chanting it in the Kop to thousands of people choosing to shut it down because they know it's offensive – and that's thanks to Jürgen. It's made the environment for LGBT+ fans completely different. He chooses to educate himself and he chooses to engage."

Adam Bogdan, goalkeeper during Klopp's first season at Liverpool: "He wasn't afraid to re-jig things. He believed in changing the time [of training] closer to the time of the game. That would have meant if you were in Europe and you play on a Thursday night then maybe on a Tuesday or Wednesday you would train at maybe six o'clock at night. But then maybe you play on a Sunday at two o'clock in the afternoon, then from Friday to Saturday you could train around 11 or 12 o'clock again.

"I didn't like it but there's logic in it, to be honest. The logic is, 'Get used to it and get used to playing at any time they throw at you.' Once he explains it, it's logical. The game is the most important thing and you count everything back from the game."

Tony Costante, a translator who was made viral ahead of the Champions League semi-final with AS Roma in 2018: "I was sitting next to him, taking notes. He finished his first answer, which was quite long. As I was then speaking those notes back in Italian, he was looking at me and I could see him making comments out of the side of my eye. He was surprised I was able to do it. He said, 'Wow, that was amazing! I can't even remember what I said.' He spoke for quite a long time again and then I did it again. When I finished, he led a round of applause.

"In the same press conference they asked him if one day he would consider managing in Italy. He said, 'The only word I understand is 'spaghetti' in Italian.' And then when I translated into Italian, when I said 'spaghetti', he actually looked over and said, 'Oh, I understand that word.'"

Klavan: "Three hours before the Champions League final in Kyiv was the final team meeting and I think he could sense we were a little bit anxious or nervous. He started the meeting showing his underpants that were CR7 ones, so Cristiano Ronaldo No.7. He said, 'I didn't do it on purpose because my wife packs my underwear and socks. These were the only pants left.' That was the beginning of the meeting before the Champions League final, so that took a lot of pressure off the team."

Campino, lead singer of Die Toten Hosen and close friend of Klopp, after the 2018 Champions League final: "Nobody could go to bed. It was early in the morning when we arrived in Liverpool. We just opened a few bottles of beer and talked about the game. Of course everybody was deeply disappointed, frustrated. I don't know why we started singing, but it was a good spirit.

"We filmed it and had a laugh about the lyrics and everything. I said, 'Shall we put it on Facebook?' He [Klopp] said, 'Yeah, go on, go on.' I called my office and three times they called back and said, 'We'd recommend you don't bring it out because we can see you had a little drink.' Three times they called and I asked Jürgen twice, 'Hey, the office thinks it's not a good idea' But he said, 'Nevermind, it's OK.'

"You could either cry about what happened or you could have a laugh. We decided to go for the second one, stay positive about it. He's got a great way of getting up again and getting going again. I think he's absolutely fantastic in turning things to a positive view and learning out of mistakes or bad situations."

Oakley Cannonier, U21s striker and the quick-thinking ball boy during Liverpool's comeback against Barcelona in 2019: "I trained with the first team and the boss came up to me and he was like, 'I just need to thank you' for what I did."

Renato Paiva, then-head coach of Benfica B, who played the Reds in a friendly ahead of the 2019 Champions League final: "When we arrived in Marbella, we had a meeting with the staff of Liverpool and they showed us the way they thought Tottenham will play in the final. They studied Benfica B also because there [were] similar things between both teams.

"The first [moment] of our game in Marbella was so similar to the first [moment] of the final. The difference was that Sadio Mane scored his goal against us; against Tottenham, it was the [awarding] of the penalty. Incredible, in-cre-dible, the similarity. The way we built up, it was almost equal to the way Tottenham built up."

Jan Aage Fjortoft, former footballer turned broadcaster: "My highlight, of course, is when they won the Champions League and he looked at me and sang 'Let's talk about six, baby'. We had to wait for a long time and I had my negotiations with UEFA that I should get Klopp first. I appealed to him that I had seen all Champions League games from Liverpool that season.

"I got him first when he came up the stairs and he came on and starts singing. I couldn't believe it. I knew it was fantastic TV, I knew it showed Jürgen Klopp as he is. He was the celebrating kid who had just won the Champions League with his mates, his players."

Chris Shaw, senior manager of editorial content at LFC: "Jürgen's human touch has always been what I appreciated most, and it was never more evident in my own experience working with him – a privilege of a phrase to be able to say – than in the weeks after Liverpool clinched the league title in 2020. The boss took time out of what is surely a ridiculously busy schedule to arrange a surprise video call with the Liverpoolfc.com editorial team. We all logged on for what we believed was another routine meeting – and then up popped Jürgen on the screen.

"Not that it were needed or expected, but he wanted to say a personal thank you for all of our work on behalf of the club and him, and also catch up on what was going on in our life and with our families at a time when everyone was trying to find a way through the COVID-19 pandemic. He even knew about the recent birth of my son and was checking on how he was doing. This was just one example of how he always made everyone feel like we were all in it together over the last nine years. A simple act of kindness that encapsulates the man."

Klavan: "He changed how I saw football. The famous Jürgen Klopp synonym 'gegenpressing', it doesn't work with only one detail but it's a whole system. These are not simple things but in the end it's a really simple system that is really detailed. He could explain it really well and everybody understood what they needed to do. He's able to take those complicated things and make it simple. This is where he's really good."

Phillips: "I think it was my first pre-season game, obviously my first time playing for Liverpool's first team, and that was a massive moment for me. I was certainly feeling nervous before the game and just wanted to be sure that I didn't make any mistakes, didn't slip up. That meant that I was playing really safe in possession and giving to the lads who were next to me.

"I remember at half-time he came in and changed the whole team, like we do in pre-season, and he said to me, 'I don't want that from you, I can get anyone to do that. I want you to try things, I want you to take risks and believe in yourself because I've seen you do it.'"

Tyler Morton when making his senior debut away at Norwich City in a 2021 Carabao Cup tie: "Someone got injured and I was outside [at half-time] just messing about and kicking a ball as you do. I got brought in and I was coming on. I had absolutely no clue, I just didn't expect it at all. He just put his arm around me and said, 'You deserve to be here, you deserve to play.' That takes that pressure off you, knowing you've got that trust off such a world-class manager."

Tuchel: "It was all the time a real pleasure and I felt that our respect for each other grew a lot. I remember our last final in Wembley with both of us on the touchline and we had some exchanges of looks in certain moments where we just thought, 'Wow! That's a proper match of football.'"

Fjortoft: "I remember I talked to Klopp [after a game] and he got so engaged that he talked for three, four minutes, and this is one answer! At the end I was holding my microphone and I had to take my left hand to hold up my right just to do the interview with him!

"As an interviewer, you will be told by the media people, 'Two questions, three questions.' But that is not a problem with Klopp. Even if they tell you that you have one question, he will fill it for us. I have learned over the years that it is part of his trick as well – and I say that in a positive way – because he makes us feel that he is answering everything we're asking him! But if you're not aware with Jürgen, he will answer something else."

Bogdan: "I got dropped from second- to third-choice – which, by the way, is understandable – but then he put me back on the bench for the League Cup final because I had played three games beforehand. That was a nice touch."

Steudtner: "He sent me a really nice message when I got the world record a couple of years ago. We've been keeping in touch. Jürgen sending me a private message, not even a public message, that means a lot because of who he is – and not as a famous person but as a human."

Klavan: "He didn't understand at first why I was leaving. I had one year left on my contract but in the end I explained my side of the story and how I wanted to play more. He understood. The farewell was nice and on really good terms. Not only did he change me as a football player, he also changed me as a human being."