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Jürgen Klopp has announced he is ready to return to football management, expressing openness to discussions about becoming Germany's next national team coach following another disappointing World Cup exit for the four-time champions.
Klopp departed Liverpool in 2024, citing exhaustion as his reason for leaving. Since early 2025, he has taken on a less demanding role as Red Bull's head of global football. However, an unexpected mention of his name by the German football federation (DFB) in a statement confirming Julian Nagelsmann's departure has opened the door for Klopp, who says he feels "more than recharged" and eager to return to the dugout.
"The DFB leadership will now seek talks with Jürgen Klopp. He has already signaled his general willingness to take on the position," the statement had read.
Given the chance to share his perspective, Klopp told Magenta TV in Germany: "I can confirm the talks. Julian has stepped down and the [federation] is working on the succession and has approached me in the course of those considerations."
Klopp Has Recovered From Liverpool Exit
Klopp finds himself in a very different headspace compared to when he walked away from Liverpool as the club's most decorated manager in recent memory. When he voluntarily stepped down, feeling burned out and unable to continue, the former Borussia Dortmund manager had spent 23 years as a club coach—his only break came between leaving Dortmund and joining Liverpool in 2015, lasting just four months.
Much of his time at Liverpool was also shaped by a fierce sporting rivalry with Pep Guardiola, who has himself since departed the Premier League due to similarly drained energy levels.
"The timing even now is not perfect because I am currently under contract with Red Bull, but it is still better than it has ever been," Klopp continued. "When I stopped at Liverpool, I lacked the energy for even one more year with the club, and I'm more than recharged now."
Klopp has long harbored a quiet ambition to manage Germany, frequently asked about it during his time at Liverpool and never dismissing the idea. In a notable 2023 interview, he revealingly stated: "I could become Germany coach at some point. But it has to fit, and so far it hasn't."
Now, at least in terms of timing, it finally does fit.
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Klopp Demands 'Intensive Talks' Amid Need for Change
What could still prevent Klopp from taking charge of Germany is whether he and the DFB can reach an agreement on how the national team should be structured and operated.
Germany reached the semifinals or further at 10 of 13 World Cups between 1966 and 2014. Even within that period, a mid-cycle rebuild transformed a nation humiliated at Euro 2004 into world champions a decade later. But the current decline runs far deeper.
Die Mannschaft had not suffered a first-round World Cup exit in 80 years before the shocking group-stage elimination in 2018. The same fate struck again in 2022, and this summer's round of 32 penalty shootout loss to Paraguay represented yet another historic low point.
Germany has not won a World Cup knockout match since claiming the trophy 12 years ago, and has fared little better at the last two European Championships (2021, 2024). It almost seems as though reaching the summit in 2014 unconsciously led to a gradual easing off the accelerator.
"German football is obviously at a turning point," Klopp said. "Now we need to change things fundamentally. Whether that's me in the end or whoever it may be, that doesn't change the fact that changes are necessary.
"The situation is such that I have an existing contract with Red Bull. As a person, I am usually very happy to keep contracts. But I have also said that I am very interested in the discussions. Those conversations will have to happen, and they will have to be intensive talks because, of course, the problems Germany were experiencing were not due to Julian Nagelsmann."