All week all we had heard about was that Jürgen Klopp could not win the big one. That after three cup final defeats at Liverpool on his CV that he was the “nearly man”. Great at winning semi-finals, but unable to win when the pressure was on.
On Saturday night in Madrid, Klopp got rid of that label for good after winning the biggest prize in club football. Klopp’s image will be paraded on the Kop among the icons of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Rafa Benitez. He is one of the great ones now.
Afterwards Klopp spoke about the win and what it means to him and his family:
I feel mostly relief, to be honest, relief for my family actually because they are pretty close to me and the last six times we always flew on holiday with a silver medal, that doesn’t feel too cool. This is completely different this year. It’s for them as well, that’s great. It’s for the supporters of course, but for our owners as well because they never put real pressure on us, they appreciate the development, they see the steps we make. It’s for them as well. For the players, we were all pretty much crying on the pitch because it was so emotional, it was so big, it means so much to us.
We spoke two days ago about my ‘unlucky’ career somehow. When I hear it I think, ‘Yeah, people could see it like this’, but I don’t feel it, to be honest because I always see the way to a final as well because that’s of course important for me as well. I think my life is much better than I ever expected it, so winning something is good, it’s cool, but it’s for all the other people. I’m not so much in it, I’m much more really in development but I get it, we have to win things, so for us it’s really important that people don’t ask now all the time about not winning or winning things.
Now we won something and we will carry on. We want to win things, 100 per cent. I’ve said it, this is only the start for this group. It’s still a wonderful age group, they all have the best times in their careers ahead of them so that’s big. For me, I’m really happy. I have a lot of silver medals and now I have a golden one so it’ll be next to the silver medals in my house and that’s cool. But mostly I’m happy for all the other people. When you see it now in the dressing room, everybody feels it but you don’t really know what to do with it. But tomorrow I’m really sure when we drive through the city, then we all will realise what these boys have done and that’s the best moment, for sure.
