LIVERPOOL -- Jurgen Klopp knew the Premier League title, and his dream of a glorious farewell as Liverpool manager, was gone. A 2-0 Merseyside derby defeat against Everton at Goodison Park last month left the team still with a mathematical chance of winning the league, but as much as he is a romantic, Klopp is also a realist.
Twenty-four hours later, defending champions Manchester City had the opportunity to take advantage of Liverpool's slip by winning at Brighton. City and manager Pep Guardiola have been a constant thorn in Klopp's side throughout his eight and a half year reign at Anfield, and the 56-year-old had no appetite to stay at home and watch his rivals on TV -- they would win 4-0 and leapfrog Liverpool in the table -- so he went to the pub.
At 6-foot-3, Klopp is an imposing figure, easily recognisable with or without the baseball cap he often wears. On this day, however, he was in no mood for selfies or autograph hunters as he walked to The Freshfield, the pub less than a five-minute stroll from his home in Formby.
The seaside town 10 miles up the coast from Liverpool makes for a tranquil spot. Klopp's road is lined by towering Scots pine and sycamore trees all the way up to the squirrel sanctuary that butts against the sand dunes. It's a nice escape from the intensity of the title race, that physically and psychologically draining nine-month, 38-game battle to win the Premier League. But what happened at The Freshfield epitomised the unique bond that Klopp has forged with his club's supporters and the city of Liverpool.
"My son was here and the last thing we wanted to do is to watch City playing," Klopp said. "So we went out and in that time we were there, I think 20 people just came to say 'Thank you' and I was really not in the mood. I wanted to apologize for the night before because I know what it means to the people. And the response is, 'No, forget that. No, no, no. Thank you for what you have done.'
"It's crazy how the people in Liverpool people are. It's exactly what I learned here."
Klopp will take charge of Liverpool for the final time when Wolves visit Anfield on Sunday, and tickets are already being sold online for more than £1,400 ($1,775). The most expensive ticket, purchased through official channels for a Premier League game at Anfield, is usually £61 ($77).
Klopp has revived Liverpool since arriving at the club in October 2015. He has won every major trophy, with the exception of the Europa League, at least once and the team's title win in 2019-20 ended a 30-year wait to become champions of England again. But his impact has gone beyond the confines of Anfield.
Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones said in January, days after the manager announced his decision to step down at the end of the season, that Klopp was the "dad of the whole city," while Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool City Region, told ESPN that the former Borussia Dortmund coach is "as revered in the religion of Liverpool football club as the Pope is to Catholicism." One Liverpool source said that Klopp "made Liverpool cool again," drawing more positive attention to the city than any of its high-profile figures since the Beatles in the 1960s.
To outsiders, Klopp can be a divisive figure, one who has been punished on a number of occasions for berating match officials during games. He can also be tetchy on camera or if he believes that his right to privacy away from the game has been denied by fans or paparazzi. But he is also perhaps unique in the Premier League era as a manager who has forged a sense of unity and affection like no other between himself, his players and the club's supporters. Sir Alex Ferguson did not manage that at Manchester United and Guardiola hasn't achieved it at Manchester City, but at Liverpool, you would waste a lot of time trying to find anyone with a negative word to say about Klopp.
"He lit a fire under the place when he arrived," Dan Morgan, the author of "Jurgen Said To Me: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool and the Remaking of a City," told ESPN. "The best way to describe his time as manager is that it has felt like being at a kitchen party after everywhere else has closed."
What drew Klopp to Liverpool
"I am the normal one," Klopp said in his first news conference as Liverpool manager in 2015. "I am a totally normal guy."
Due to a lack of space at Anfield, Liverpool had considered staging Klopp's introductory news conference at the Titanic Hotel in the city, but abandoned the idea when it was suggested that launching a new era in a building named after a ship which sank on its first voyage would not be the greatest idea.
Tongue-in-cheek remark aside, Klopp had already proved himself to be something more than normal during seven years in charge of Borussia Dortmund, guiding the club to two Bundesliga titles in an era otherwise dominated by Bayern Munich. He also took Dortmund to a Champions League final in 2013 before losing to Bayern at Wembley, but on his first day at Anfield, he was smart enough to avoid the trap of echoing Jose Mourinho's legendary introduction at Chelsea in 2004, when the Portuguese coach described himself as the "Special One."
A year earlier, Klopp had rejected an approach from Manchester United to succeed David Moyes as manager at Old Trafford. Ed Woodward, United's then-executive vice chairman, had try to sell the vision of Old Trafford being an "adult version of Disneyland," but Klopp was distinctly unimpressed by the sales pitch. As someone who has never hidden his socialist beliefs, the corporate spin delivered by Woodward completely misjudged the person at whom it was being directed.
Liverpool were in a different place when they approached Klopp in 2015, a club struggling to recreate its glorious past while carrying a fanbase and history every bit as big and demanding as United's. Michael Edwards, then Liverpool's sporting director, had secretly scouted Klopp for months, even booking himself into the same hotel as Dortmund prior to a Bundesliga game simply to watch how Klopp interacted with players and staff.
By the time Liverpool came calling, Klopp was four months into a sabbatical following his departure from Dortmund at the end of the previous season. However, the chance to revive the club and build a new team at Anfield convinced him to cut short his planned yearlong break and take on the challenge of restoring the club as one of the best in the world again.
