"Why me? I wear a cap and have a bad shave” – Liverpool’s year of triumph in Klopp’s words

Reuters Videos
Updated

SHOWS:

MADRID, SPAIN (FILE - JUNE 1, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, AFTER WINNING THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, SAYING:

"Usually I would sit here a bit earlier and have to explain 'how can you lose this game?' This time, I would love to explain - actually, no, I don't want to explain why we won it, I only want to enjoy that we won it and all the rest is not important."

2. WHITE FLASH

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, AFTER WINNING THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, SAYING:

"I feel mostly relief, to be honest. Relief for my family actually, because they are pretty close to me, you can imagine. And the last seven times, six times we always flew on holiday with a silver medal that doesn't feel too cool."

4. WHITE FLASH

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - OCTOBER 18, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, AHEAD OF AWAY GAME AGAINST MANCHESTER UNITED, SAYING:

"On Sky (Sky Sports News) when you made a combined line-up (of Liverpool and Manchester United players) and you had eleven players of Liverpool and that's like a joke. It's like building a banana skin. So, that's what everybody wants to see. We are, the world at the moment is a circus, we are in the centre. A couple of people want us to win, a couple of people want us to lose."

6. WHITE FLASH

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - NOVEMBER 10, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, ON IF THE TEAM IS FEELING THE PRESSURE, SAYING:

"We were today completely focused on this game and not the situation in the table or whatever. How many points we are ahead of City or whatever. That's crazy. Nine points you cannot imagine something like this happen. But it's not important because who wants to be first in early November? You want to be first if then in May not early November so that's, we all know that but we don't have to say that because it's anyway clear."

8. WHITE FLASH

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - FEBRUARY 24, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, ON THE SQUAD'S SEASON AS THEY CONTINUED MARCH TO TITLE, SAYING:

"Yes, true a couple of years ago, three or four maybe at the beginning I said we want to write our own stories, we want to create our own history. Obviously, the boys took that really seriously, what I said there, and that's all cool but just not too important in the moment. But it's so special - the numbers are incredible, so difficult. We sat here a couple of times, we spoke about wonderful games, brilliant games, we spoke about hard games, difficult games; tonight was a difficult one obviously so the number of wins you can only have if you win all these games. Obviously the difficult ones, the easy ones - if there ever was one - the brilliant ones and the more... the rougher or more grumpy ones. so that's how it is and in the end that's what counts. We all know that it's very special but in the moment we are really just in the situation we want to recover and we want to prepare for the next one because the next opponent is really waiting and wants to fight us, wants to... the whole stadium at Watford will go for us. It's completely normal, there will be a special atmosphere and we have to be 100% ready. I saw the boys tonight, they are ready to fight and how I said as long as we are really ready to fight nobody should worry but we still have a lot of work to do."

10. WHITE FLASH

LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - FEBRUARY 29, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, ON END OF SEASON'S UNBEATEN RUN, SAYING:

"Not really, because I don't think you can break records because you want to break records. You break records because you are 100% focused on each step you have to do. Whatever record it is - a marathon or whatever - and for that you have to perform and the boys performed. That's why we won the games so often. But, tonight we were not good enough and that's not now a plus for me that I think in history, when they look back in five-hundred years and will say 'Liverpool nearly did it.'"

12. WHITE FLASH

LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - MARCH 3, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP, ON THE CORONAVIRUS, SAYING:

"People with no knowledge like me talking about something; people with knowledge should talk about it and should tell the people do this or do this and everything will be fine or not. Not football managers, I don't understand that: politics, coronavirus, why me? I wear a baseball cap and I have a bad shave."

14. WHITE FLASH

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK (MARCH 10, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, IN BACK-AND-FORTH WITH A REPORTER ON THE CORONAVIRUS, SAYING:

KLOPP: "Are you from Madrid? "

REPORTER: "I am from Argentina, I live in Madrid."

KLOPP: "You live in Madrid. OK, and you, are you concerned that in your city they close...?"

REPORTER: I'm not playing football tomorrow."

KLOPP: "Oh, but that's not that special. Playing football is just a game, we are not the society, we are part of the society and we should all be worried in the same time. And that's exactly the thing I don't like that you sit here and ask me this question, but fly from Madrid to here. So, stay there, they close schools and universities, but you are obviously concerned, that's the question, but you think now football is worth it to travel or whatever, that's the situation. That's our problem, our common problem and we cannot sort it with football. We play football, it's our part, it's what we have to do. Your job is to transport information and I hope you do it better than you ask questions, to be honest. Because that's the moment when I really get angry, when you give me the feeling I have a problem which you don't have. We have all the same problem.

REPORTER: "No, no, I'm not saying that."

KLOPP: That's it exactly. You said, 'but I'm not playing football.' That's only one part. You talk every day to people at a close range, which I don't do. So, we are the same. Are you worried?"

16. WHITE FLASH

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT - JUNE 23, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, ON MANCHESTER CITY, SAYING:

"What I mean is I'm really only concerned about what we are doing and I only think about we have to do in the next game and not what City is doing. I watch them because we play them tomorrow, no on Thursday in a week so in eight days, nine days and that's why I watch them; not for hoping that they lose or whatever it's never like this. Maybe I wanted them to lose last year against Leicester but that didn't work really well so that's why I stopped doing that."

18. WHITE FLASH

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 26, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER, JUERGEN KLOPP, ON WINNING PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE, SAYING:

"I'm happy, really happy, relieved. Last night I was overwhelmed obviously, but it's a very good, it's a very good moment in my life and yes. It's a mix of all. It's a mix of all, it shows me I'm not 100% sure about myself. It just shows me it's a really big achievement, I know that. And it was an incredible ride to get here, but the boys did in the time since I'm in is just exceptional and I'm so happy for them that we could do that."

STORY: From a Champions League victory to a Premier League title and everything, including the coronavirus pause, in between, we look back at some of manager Juergen Klopp's most memorable and colourful quotes over the past year, June, 2019 to June, 2020.

Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions with seven games remaining in the season after second-placed Manchester City lost to Chelsea 2-1 on Thursday (June 25), leaving Klopp's team, who have lost just one game this season, unreachable at the top with a 23-point advantage.

Along the way, Klopp saw their undefeated season slip from his grip when he said he didn't expect history to look back and say, "Liverpool nearly did it."

When fears were mounting over the spread of COVID-19 and what that meant for the sport, Klopp was often quick to swat down questioners saying he was the wrong person to ask, "Why me? I wear a baseball cap and I have a bad shave," he said when asked about the disease in early March.

It was a year full of ups and downs, all throughout, Klopp was Klopp and that means never at a loss for words right up until his side secured their first Premier League title in 30 years.