A LOAD OF (RED) BULL?
Say it ain’t so, Jürgen. Say it ain’t so. Last January, Liverpool’s then manager Jürgen Klopp shocked football by releasing a video in which he announced he’d be headed for the Anfield exit door come season’s end. By way of explanation, Klopp revealed he was “running out of energy”, so in at least one way the surprise news that he will be taking on a new role as head of global soccer at Red Bull should come as no surprise. Sadly, in so many other ways the revelation that this affable, apparently grounded if occasionally grumpy German has turned out to be another corporate sell-out seems crushingly disappointing. “I know how much the Red Bull idea is criticised by traditionalists and I’m one of them too,” he chirped two years ago, back in the days when, as a former manager of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, he always seemed to convey the impression that he was a man of the people who intrinsically “got” football fandom and culture, and what they are all about.
