There have been many tributes paid to Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, who on Friday announced he would be leaving the Premier League club at the end of the season. Fans have praised him, rivals have acknowledged his achievements and the Premier League has posted clips of his trademark fist pumps online. But no act of homage is likely to exceed the words of Margaret Aspinall, the Hillsborough campaigner. Klopp, she said, is not only a great manager, but “a great human being, a great personality and a great humanitarian”.
Aspinall was speaking on the evening Klopp was awarded the freedom of the city of Liverpool in 2022. With the right to drive sheep through the streets and a duty to defend the city’s honour, Klopp said at the time he was overwhelmed by the occasion. “We will not live forever here because at one point we will go back to Germany,” he said, “but we will take [the key to the city], we will take care of it, we will take it to everywhere we go because it’s just special.”
