Jamie Carragher posed one question to fans who are unhappy with Jurgen Klopp’s decision to join the Red Bull setup.
Klopp has agreed to become Head of Global Football on a four-year contract which begins on January 1, 2025.
Red Bull have long been condemned by German football fans, and the former Borussia Dortmund and Mainz boss was the subject of criticism within the country when the deal was announced.
RB Leipzig are seen as ‘the most hated club in Germany’ due to the perceived ‘artificial’ amount of investing and the way the club is run compared to the DFB-regulated model.
DFB laws state that each professional club must operate on a ’50+1′ rule, which means members, or fans, have the majority of voting rights. Leipzig have 17 members with voting rights but most of those are connected to Red Bull, while the club has also exploited a loophole in the law which states clubs cannot be named after sponsors by calling themselves RasenBallsport (translated to English literally as LawnBallsport) Leipzig.
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The topic of Klopp’s decision was brought up on the latest episode of CBS Sports – and it prompted Carragher to defend the former Liverpool manager.
He said: “Klopp’s a certain type of manager. He’s not just a football manager – he’s seen as the manager of the people at the clubs he’s at, including Liverpool.
“I understand the model in Germany, in terms of the ownership of the club, and this is different to what we see in the Premier League.
“But Klopp has got to stick to the ideals of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund supporters for the rest of his life.
“We’re all hypocrites, if we’re being totally honest. We all have views on certain things. If we get offered enough money, we’d probably still do it. That’s what happened.
“He’s not the manager of Red Bull. He’s overseeing something. And he’s probably speaking to people, going to meetings, going to a few meetings, and probably getting paid an awful lot of money.”
Carragher then posed a direct question to Borussia Dortmund and Mainz fans over their stance towards Klopp.
“One thing I’d ask those supporters. If they’re that against the Red Bull and what their clubs are – why did Dortmund buy Erling Haaland from them? Why do they have Karim Adeyemi, who’s there now?
“If you’re so against everything that the Red Bull model is about, don’t buy and sell players to them. But they ended up getting the best player in the world and sold him to Manchester City for a right few quid. That was okay.”
He continued: “Jurgen Klopp’s football is basically identical to the Red Bull model.
“There’s a huge respect there from Jurgen Klopp in terms of the football way of doing things. He’s thinking, ‘Okay, I’m going to get paid a lot of money, I’m going to give them my expertise. But I’m also going to learn a lot from them for my next job’.
“I think he’s got great respect for the model. I actually do [like the way Red Bull do things]. They give young players a chance, unpolished gems, polish them up, and sell them off as diamonds. I think it’s a great model that other clubs are trying to copy.
“He [Klopp] will be back in club management. He won’t do that much [at Red Bull].”
More to follow…