Falling in Love With Jurgen Klopp is Easy

This story originally appeared on VICE Sports UK.

Do you not like Jurgen Klopp? Not even a glimmer of affection for the Liverpool boss? Then your once-beating human heart has been replaced by a cold slab of grey stone. I do not support Liverpool, but I cannot help but like Klopp more each time he pops up on TV. I’m starting to feel like if my own team can’t win the league, I’d definitely like it to be his. Not necessarily Liverpool, just whoever he manages. And I don’t think I’m alone.

How has he achieved this? At a guess, it’s because he seems like an intelligent, funny and normal guy rather than the marauding ego monsters (‘continental super-bosses’) or actual bona fide simpletons (‘good football men’) we’re used to. Pretty obvious, really.

There’s also stuff like this. Klopp being interviewed by a nine-year-old Liverpool fan makes the German seem all the more endearing.

The way the kid first shakes his hand, then can’t help but hug him, shows the kind of love Klopp generates. Then there’s Klopp’s valiant attempts at a Scouse accent and pronunciation, and a relaxed interview with the young fan.

“I love football because you can win against better teams,” Klopp says, which is a really on-message soundbite when you’re managing Liverpool circa 2015. Klopp also says he can “speak like a waterfall” which is more achingly beautiful than anything Tim Sherwood ever mumbled.

Sure, an embittered cynic might point out that the interview is, to some degree, staged. But what comes across most is that Klopp is totally happy to be doing it in the first place. He’s relaxed and comfortable in a way that most managers wouldn’t be; his contemporaries would look desperate to get out of that room as quick as possible.

And the way he laughs heartily when the kid calls Liverpool “the best city in the world” – yeah, Klopp is the fucking man.