Klopp turned down national team job to embark on Liverpool adventure

Jurgen Klopp TEAMtalk

Jurgen Klopp politely turned down the chance to manage Mexico in 2015, according to the former director of national teams for the Mexican Football Federation.

Guillermo Cantu says he made contact with Klopp through a third party and offered him the chance to manage El Tri, but was told the German was intent on heading to England.

Instead Klopp, 52, who was bringing to a close a seven-season spell in charge of Borussia Dortmund, where he won back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 2010-11 and 2011-12, signed a deal at Liverpool in October 2015.

“I asked through a third party if he’d be interested in the Mexican national team and the message back was, ‘I appreciate it, many thanks, but I still have a lot to do in club football and I want to go to England,'” said Cantu in an Instagram Live interview with TUDN.

After Klopp declined the job, Cantu went on to hire Juan Carlos Osorio as manager in 2015, a decision that Cantu says he does not regret.

“If you told me, ‘You will choose a coach who will finish the three years with a 70 per cent [win record],’ I’d sign off on it 40 times,” Cantu said.

 

 

 

“He always played to win, I think we can appreciate that,” Cantu added. “They made fun of him when he said, ‘We have to go out and beat Germany'”.

Meanwhile, Klopp has not done to badly either with a Champions League trophy in the bag. The German has also transformed the team into one of the best side’s Europe and to within touching distance of the Premier League title.

READ MORE: Klopp reflects on how run of final defeats made Liverpool stronger