Jürgen Klopp said he may not return to management after ending his eight-and-a-half year reign as Liverpool manager, with the 56-year-old admitting that he feels “empty” after the emotional strain of his final months in charge at Anfield.
Liverpool recorded a 2-0 win at home to Wolves and secured a third-place finish in the Premier League as Klopp bowed out following his 491st game in charge of the team on Sunday.
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Feyenoord coach Arne Slot will succeed Klopp at Anfield after confirming his departure from the Netherlands team last week and Klopp threw his support behind his successor by singing Slot’s name on the pitch during a post-match speech to the crowd.
But after calling time on his Liverpool career at the age of 56, former Mainz and Borussia Dortmund coach Klopp said he will not return to management unless he has the “spark” he needs to work in the game again.
“I don’t know exactly why nobody believes I probably will not be a manager again,” Klopp said in his post-match news conference at Anfield. “But I understand because obviously it seems to be a drug — it looks like that because everybody comes back and everyone works until they are 70-something.
“I always had the idea that I will not do that that long. Look, other people are smarter, other people can do it in different ways. I have to be all-in, I have to be the spark, I have to be the energy, I have to be all these kind of things and I’m empty. That’s it.
“My biggest worry today was that [goalkeeper coach] John Achterberg was coughing all the time next to me and I thought I would wake up and I’m ill because he did his coughing in my direction!
“I have to start with the rest now and then we will see. But it’s not now that I feel now already and [think about] maybe the next opportunity.
“You only have to look outside which clubs are obviously available and stuff like this. There will be opportunities, but I don’t sit here and think, ‘Maybe in a year’s time I take that.’ In this moment, it’s see you later.
“I love all and everything about the club, but it’s time for me to go. But look, it’s not burning behind me and that gives me a good feeling.”
Klopp and his family are set to return to Germany once they have attended a fan event in Liverpool next week, but he said that he will return to Anfield as a supporter in the future.
“I know I can come back and I will come back,” he said. “How I said after the game, from today, from three hours ago when the game finished, I’m a Liverpool supporter and I love that.
“Now we will have a party and then we will come back next for another event and I will come back occasionally just, how I said, as a supporter now, and I’m fine with that, honestly. “Maybe not for the first game of the season — that’s early, wow! Maybe after the second international break or something like this.”