Jürgen Klopp has announced his departure from Borussia Dortmund, and he's going to manage somewhere next season. Unlike Thomas Tuchel, who took over at Mainz a year after Klopp's departure, or current Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola, he's not taking time off.
What’s next for Jürgen Klopp?
Real Madrid, Manchester City and others will be interested in hiring the soon-to-be-former Borussia Dortmund coach. Where he goes is anyone’s guess.
Lars Baron/Getty Images
“It’s not that I’m tired,” said Klopp. “I haven’t had any contact form another club in England or anywhere else. But I don’t intend to have a sabbatical year.”
So he’s going somewhere, probably somewhere big, where he’ll get to coach the biggest names he’s ever had to deal with and make a ridiculous amount of money. There are six conceivable possibilities, and it’s not that easy to figure out which is most likely.
The only managerial departure at a huge club that appears to be a foregone conclusion is Manuel Pellegrini at Manchester City. The Abu Dhabi-owned club is going to be willing to pay a huge salary to one of their top choices, and assuming they stay in the top four, they'll spend a lot of money in the transfer market too.
It's long been thought that Guardiola is the holy grail of coaches for City, and the hiring of former Barcelona director of football Txiki Begiristain only ramped up the rumor mill. Pep has one year left on his contract at Bayern Munich, and might be willing to leave for a new challenge and a lot of money next summer. It's just as likely that City hires a placeholder and goes all-in on Pep as it is that they hire Klopp.
But given the predicament City are in, Klopp would be a great hire for them. They desperately need to pivot away from their old strategy and start building around young and homegrown talent. There aren’t many managers better than Klopp at figuring out exactly how to utilize those players, developing them and getting results while playing a young squad. It seems like a perfect match, if Klopp wants the job.
As good of a job as City is, there might be a bigger one available. Losses to Barcelona in Copa del Rey and the most recent La Liga Clásico have put Carlo Ancelotti’s position in doubt. One season after he delivered La Decima, the 55-year-old coaching legend looks likely to walk away from the Bernabeu.
Madrid have been grooming Zinedine Zidane as a future manager for a while, and he’s doing well at Castilla. Florentino Perez is rumored to be interested in promoting him to the big job, but given that he has no other managerial experience, it probably wouldn’t be that hard for all of his advisers to talk him out of promoting Zidane and into hiring Klopp. Hell, Zidane himself might support that idea.
The biggest concern with hiring Klopp for Madrid would be his lack of experience coaching top stars. He's been a big part of the careers of Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski, but they came to him as a youth product and value signing, respectively, from Lech Poznan. Dealing with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos is a completely different animal. David Moyes crashed and burned in this respect, while Bernd Schuster didn't handle the pressure well during his tenure as Madrid manager. If you're the biggest club in the world, why hire anyone who doesn't know what it takes to manage the biggest stars in the world?
The circumstances here are, essentially, exactly the same. Neither Arsene Wenger nor Louis van Gaal have indicated that they have any intention to retire, though either could decide to do so at any time. They’re not going to get fired from their jobs, but if either decides to leave, Klopp becomes the top candidate. If either position is offered to him, they’ll have to interest Klopp simply because of the prospects of stability -- especially at Arsenal. You can get fired for one bad season at Madrid, and the City management doesn’t seem especially patient either. Klopp’s stayed at both of his managerial jobs for seven years. It’s entirely possible that the Madrid and City jobs don’t appeal to him.
Paris Saint-Germain
Ligue 1 is infinitely less glamorous than La Liga or the Premier League, but getting paid a ridiculous sum of money to live in Paris and potentially walk to a league title is a pretty sweet gig. Additionally, if PSG passes financial fair play, they’re going to spend tons this summer. They’ll probably go hard for Paul Pogba.
But, of course, there’s the chance they don’t pass FFP. They probably won’t find that out until after they’ve confirmed their coach for next season. That makes the job a lot less appealing for Klopp.
There's also the matter of PSG doing well right now. Laurent Blanc felt like a placeholder hire when he came in, but he's already won the League Cup this season, and he's still in three other competitions. A quadruple doesn't appear to be outside the realm of possibility. Can PSG really fire him in a season where he wins a league title, a cup and knocks Chelsea out of the Champions League?
FC Barcelona
By far the most unlikely of the possible jobs. Luis Enrique is a young manager with Barcelona ties who has his team on top of La Liga and into the Copa del Rey final. It would be stunning to see Barcelona get rid of him a year after deciding to hire him, even if they do think Klopp is one of the world's top managers.
Our pick: Klopp to Madrid
Perez is nuts and always picks flash over function. That’s why his team has no defensive midfielders and eight world class attackers. Still, it’s hard to believe he’s dead-set on appointing Zidane as Ancelotti’s successor when the best young manager in the world is just sitting out there, waiting for a phone call. Perez is at least going to make the call, and Klopp is at least going to pick up the phone.
See More:
