The news that Jurgen Klopp has just signed a two-year contract extension was greeted with loud cheers in the red half of Merseyside.
Liverpool fans simply adore him.
It isn’t just his gleaming white smile or his joyous and sometimes explosive touchline celebrations; it’s the fact that the German coach has lifted the Reds to the heights of which few fans under the age of 40 have seen.
There was not a dry eye at Anfield when his team won the 2020 Premier League title to become Kings of England for the first time in 30 years, breaking the seemingly unbreakable dominance of Manchester City. And now the two giants of the EPL are matching each other stride for stride and are battling for English and European glory.
That Klopp has just signed a contract extension which takes him to 2026 is the best Premier League 2022 news the Liverpool fans could hope for, and a timely boost for the club as it approaches the season’s climax.
The making of Jurgen Klopp
A fans favourite during his 11-year playing career at Mainz 05, Klopp says of himself that he had fourth-division feet and a first-division head. The 05 supporters won’t agree with him as he showed better feet than he admits to, first as a striker and then as a committed right-sided defender, finishing as the club’s top scorer with 52 goals from 325 appearances.
He hung up his boots in 2001 with his club in Bundesliga 2 and, on the sacking of Eckhard Krautzen, he took charge of the team, winning six of his first seven games as head coach. With his coaching diploma already completed, Klopp grew in reputation as Mainz finished fourth in his first two full seasons in charge, before winning promotion at the third attempt.
Klopp kept Mainz in the top flight with mid-table finishes and a small budget, but after relegation in 2007, and a failed attempt to return in 2008, he resigned and was snapped up by Borussia Dortmund.
And it was at the Signal Iduna Stadium where he won his first major titles and his method of Gegenpressing, high-octane football with an ethos to recover possession as soon as it is lost, became admired and copied throughout Europe.
In 2012, BVB won their first-ever domestic double, beating FC Bayern 5-2 in the DFB Pokal final and it wasn’t long before other clubs were courting Klopp.
The Normal One
In 2015 Klopp signed a three-year deal to join Liverpool and announced himself as ‘The Normal One’ in a clear parody of Jose Mourinho’s claim to be ‘The Special One’ when he arrived at Chelsea just over a decade earlier. But Klopp’s reign has been anything but normal as Liverpool fans have watched their team once again conquer the English top flight and the UEFA Champions League.
Liverpool climbed back into the top four and with year on year improvements, the 2018/19 campaign was a breakout season for the Reds as they secured 97 points, the highest-ever scored by a team without winning the title, and they won the Champions League, beating Spurs 2-0 with goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi.
And, in the following year, 30 years of hurt was washed away from the Liverpool fans as their team finally won the Premier League title that had evaded them since 1989.
And what does 2022 have in store?
Well, that is the million-dollar question. Klopp had previously suggested that he would be ready to take a break when his contract expires in 2024.
But something has changed his mind.
Take a look at the Anfield trophy cabinet; take a look at the league table and the Champions League updates and take a look at the smiles on the faces of the fans on the Red side of the Mersey. They are not all as white as their head coach’s smile, but they are just as wide!
The latest Premier League 2022 betting odds still back Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City…but only just and the gap at the top of the table has been whittled down to just a single point, with four games left to play. There may be one more twist to come and, if it arrives, we’ll be all over the action right here at SBOTOP.
With the Carabao Cup already in the bag, an FA Cup final date with Chelsea on the way and a Champions League semi-final against Villarreal under control there is hushed talk of an historic quadruple.
The Champions League final could well be a Liverpool/Manchester City shootout and that would be a blockbuster clash, the likes of which the world of football has been waiting for.
Klopp’s love affair with Liverpool continues and it’s about to get even more exciting!
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