Jurgen Klopp has recounted the first time that Liverpool approached him to enquire if he’d be interested in becoming their manager.
The German has been in charge of the Reds since October 2015, but he’s revealed that the move could have happened three years earlier.
As per Chris Bascombe for The Telegraph, the now 56-year-old was sought out by then-LFC chief executive Ian Ayre in 2012, but he opted to remain with Borussia Dortmund, with whom he’d just won a second successive Bundesliga title.
Klopp recalled: “Liverpool? Nah, no chance. Three years before I came here, Ian Ayre called me up when I was at Dortmund and asked if I was interested.
“At that moment I thought, ‘eh?’. Dortmund were flying, maybe champions again. Liverpool was not in a great place. It was not a place you go and say, ‘Liverpool is calling, yeah come on, let’s go’.”
In fairness to Klopp, the Dortmund job certainly seemed a more appetising one than Liverpool in 2012, with the Reds limping to an eighth-place finish that year under Sir Kenny Dalglish, who made way for Brendan Rodgers.
The German would have little reason to regret turning down the Merseysiders, who struggled again in the following campaign while he led BVB to the Champions League final.
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Thankfully, in a classic case of good things coming to those who wait, the self-proclaimed ‘Normal One‘ would eventually get his chance at Anfield, and it would turn out to be a marriage made in heaven.
Liverpool fans might understandably be wondering whether we’d have won another trophy or two if Klopp had said yes to Ayre 12 years ago – we might’ve edged Manchester City for the Premier League title in 2014, for instance.
Despite that, we should be forever grateful that he answered the call in October 2015 and duly provided this generation of Reds supporters with stratosperic highs which seemed totally unthinkable before he came to the club.
READ MORE: The evolution of Liverpool’s starting XI under Jurgen Klopp
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