Klopp to leave Liverpool at end of season

Liverpool FC coach Jurgen Klopp stunned the football world on Friday when he announced he would step down from his post at the end of the current season, reported Xinhua.

Klopp joined Liverpool in 2015 and had a contract until June 2026, but the 56-year-old revealed that he would instead leave the club two years earlier than planned.

The German announced his decision in a video released by the club's television channel after he had informed the players of his decision.

"I can understand that it's a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it," he said in the video.

"I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything."

"It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again," he explained.

"After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth - and that is the truth," Klopp continued, adding that he had no other health problems.

"I'm on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things."

"When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up: 'I am not sure I am here then any more,' and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously started thinking about it," said Klopp.

The coach didn't say he was retiring definitively from the game, but did rule out coaching anywhere else in England.

"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. What I know definitely - I will never, ever manage a different club in England than Liverpool," he promised.

Klopp will always be remembered in Liverpool for helping end the club's 30-year-wait to win the Premier League, which they claimed in 2020. He also led them to the 2019 UEFA Champions League and the 2022 FA Cup and Carabao Cups, as well as the 2019 UEFA Super Cup and the 2019 Club World Cup.

Liverpool also lost the 2018 and 2022 Champions League finals with Klopp in charge.

Former Liverpool player Xabi Alonso, who is currently coaching Bayer Leverkusen, has been installed as the early favorite to take over at Anfield.