After six-and-a-half years, Jurgen Klopp is heading back to where his Liverpool journey started.
When the Reds face Benfica for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday, the German will return to the city in which he was offered the Liverpool job, Lisbon. While Klopp's family were on holiday there in the autumn of 2015, the Reds sacked Brendan Rodgers and wasted no time in finding a replacement.
The former Borussia Dortmund boss was enjoying a sabbatical after ending his seven-year reign with the Bundesliga club four months earlier, but the excitement on his two sons' faces when Liverpool came calling was a sign that his brief time away from the dugout was about to end. "I had a call from my agent and he told me about the interest," Klopp explained ahead of Tuesday's trip to the Estadio da Luz.
"We were completely in a holiday mood but there were some rumours around which we didn't really follow. But our sons, they pick up everything! I knew from them a little bit that a couple of things could happen and then, when we were sitting there [at a coffee bar], the phone rang.
"I didn't take a lot of phone calls at that time - my family was around, so why should I talk to anybody else? But it was my agent who is my friend as well, so I picked up the phone. And then when he said 'yeah, Liverpool is calling' the boys were staring at me and I just said 'it's Liverpool'.
"In that moment, for them the decision was made... And it was clear that we'd do that because it just felt right from the first second. It was a life-changer, definitely. I don't judge my time here on trophies too much. It is about the way we play, the way we develop and the state the club is in. This is a healthy club in a good situation."
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With sentiment aside, the ex-Dortmund and Mainz manager is braced for tough test in the Portuguese capital. "There is a lot of quality in this team and experience. It is an interesting challenge," Klopp added. "That is how it should be. I am really happy and I am really looking forward to it."
One man in particular which the Reds gaffer was asked about is Benfica hot shot Darwin Nunez, linked with a £67million move to Arsenal in the summer transfer window. "He's not the only one, I have to say," Klopp noted of this season's Primeira Liga top goalscorer. "They are a really talented team but yes, he is, he's a good striker.
"He's the next (striker) for Uruguay, I don't know how they'll play with [Edinson] Cavani, [Luis] Suarez and him, that's probably a challenge as well to put them in place. But he's a top, top boy and yes, he scored the winner against Ajax (at the round-of-16) - that was a massive one, big one. In the group stage as well, so he isn't shy."
