The U.S. Soccer Federation made the decision earlier this week to relieve Gregg Berhalter of his duties as manager of the men’s national team. Failure to progress out of the group stages of the Copa America compounded underlying problems that had been in place for most of Berhalter’s tenure as manager, and it is time for a fresh start with someone new.
When former Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz manager Jürgen Klopp had taken to his newly created Instagram page to wish Americans a happy 4th of July using pictures of his time in the United States from Liverpool FC’s preseason tours there, it almost foreshadowed what was to come. There were already rumors at that time that Berhalter would be shown the door by the U.S. Soccer Federation and Klopp had been one of the name’s most heavily linked with taking the job even though he is currently taking a break from football after a well-decorated tenure with Liverpool; he won every possible club trophy there.
Per information from Fox Sports, there were actually proactive talks and approaches from the USMNT to Klopp to try to convince him of taking the job. Former USMNT goalkeeper Tim Howard had also been outspoken about his desire to try to get Klopp on board, going as far as saying he would personally travel to Europe to speak with him face to face. Despite the concrete interest, Klopp is sticking true to his word and continuing to take a break from football altogether, aside from being a fan, of course. He was seen sporting a Germany kit in several different locations during their run at the EUROs before getting knocked out by Spain in the quarterfinals.
Will he ever manage a national team?
For a manager of Klopp’s pedigree, especially after everything he had done for Liverpool, it comes as no surprise that he is always in high demand from Europe’s most elite clubs. Before Bayern Munich hired both Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel, Klopp’s name was very much in the running to one day become manager of the Rekordmeister, but he repeatedly remained loyal to his Liverpool contracts.
The same situation and sentiment applied to the DFB and the German national team, as Klopp’s name has always been in the conversation to manage the German national team, and one day perhaps even holding a board position at the DFB or DFL. Until just a few months ago, it was not certain that Nagelsmann would be given a long-term contract to be the manager of Germany and it was very much a possibility discussed that Klopp could manage both Liverpool and Germany at the same time, or step in as Germany manager once his Liverpool contract expired.
At the time just before it was made clear Joachim Löw would be stepping down after EURO 2020, Klopp’s name was also in the running for the Germany job, but he wound up signing a Liverpool contract extension that then kept him on Merseyside until 2024. Even with that, there was still hope the DFB could convince Klopp of a “summer fairytale” to take over for Löw in the buildup to the tournament, much as Nagelsmann had done in the months building up to EURO 2024. Instead, Germany stuck with Löw and Klopp stuck with Liverpool.
Now that Klopp would be coming off of a brief sabbatical and a national team federation would not have to have him break a club contract and pay an exit fee, will he ever take a national team job, or if he does come back, will it once again be for a club somewhere in Europe? He has already said he will not manage another club in England, but that only rules out one top-flight league.
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