Jurgen Klopp’s most memorable quotes as Liverpool manager: Mentality giants, erotic voices, brain-f*cks and Rocky Balboa

“I heard from my agent that Liverpool is interested and I felt immediately, ‘Oh God!’ It’s like when I met my wife: I saw her and thought ‘OK, I marry her’, and it was like that with the club. It felt right from the first moment.” – Klopp and Liverpool were always a match made in heaven.

“I don’t want to describe myself. Does anyone in this room think I can do wonders? No, I’m a very normal guy. I came from the Black Forest and my mother may be sitting in front of the TV, watching this press conference and has said no word until now. But she is very proud. So I’m a totally normal guy. I’m the normal one, maybe, if you want this…” – Klopp reluctantly gives himself a fittingly humble nickname at his very first press conference as Liverpool manager

“It’s only important that we play our own game and the players feel the confidence and the trust of the people. It’s really important that the player feels the difference. They have to think they can reach the expectations of the fans, of the press. You have to change from a doubter to a believer.” – Klopp outlines his grand plan on that famous first day.

“We start today in a difficult league against opponents who are bigger and bigger but, in a special Liverpool way, we can be successful. We can wait for it, I don’t want to say we have to wait for 20 years, but when I sit here in four years, I’m pretty sure we will have won a title.” – Klopp makes a prediction at his unveiling. Less than four years later, he led Liverpool to Champions League glory.

“I would really like to change my personality, but I can’t forget this f*cking loss against Crystal Palace.” – Klopp knew fell well that his first defeat as Liverpool boss was going to bother him for quite some time.

“You’ll never find me three days after a win, drunk in a hedge and still celebrating.” – Klopp explained during his first season at Anfield that he was not one for partying too hard.

“One [pair] is in the museum of Borussia Dortmund because we won for the first time against Bayern Munich and Nuri Sahin broke my first glasses. Today it was Adam [Lallana], it’s broken. Usually I have a second [pair], but until now I couldn’t find it because it’s really difficult to look for glasses without glasses! I’m not sure if anyone [at the Anfield museum] will ask for them but I will keep them and we’ll see.” – Klopp’s glasses get broken during the wild celebrations that followed Adam Lallana’s 95th-minute winner in the 5-4 victory over Norwich in January 2016.

“The best word I can say to describe this is: Boom!” – Klopp succinctly sums up Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Manchester City in March 2016.

“I could play them all together. We could play 4-1-4! Hang on, I’ve forgotten a player, haven’t I? Okay, 4-1-5!” – Klopp suggests a solution to the problem of how to fit Divock Origi, Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho, Christian Benteke and Daniel Sturridge into the same starting line-up.

“The best band in the world. My mother said it, my father said it: Number one – The Beatles.” – Klopp further endears himself to Liverpool fans by turning up for a press conference in a Beatles tee-shirt!

“I’ve met some Evertonians in the street and they’ve been friendly. I’ve had taxi drivers who have been Everton fans. They’ve been really nice. At the beginning I thought ‘Okay, maybe they’re happy I’m here because they think that means Liverpool won’t have any success for the next 20 years!'” – Klopp reveals why he thinks supporters of Liverpool’s city rivals are being so nice to him in April 2016.

“If someone is silly enough to want to see my face for 90 minutes during a game, I cannot change the world.” – The infamously animated Klopp is bemused by the idea of a TV camera focusing on him for entire games.

“We will use this experience together. Then someday everybody will say Basel was a very decisive moment for the wonderful future of Liverpool FC.” – A defiant Klopp lifts his players and the club’s fans after a heart-breaking Europa League final loss to Sevilla in Switzerland.

“We played against him when he was at Basel and we didn’t know him. We played with Dortmund against him and it was ‘What the f*ck?!'” – Klopp couldn’t have been more excited by the signing of Mohamed Salah during the summer of 2017.

“If you had Wikipedia or Google and put in ‘European nights’ the answer must be ‘Anfield’.” – Klopp explains the key to Liverpool’s continental success during the run to the final of the 2017-18 Champions League final.

“We are still Rocky Balboa, not Ivan Drago. But it’s not about being the underdog, not one little bit. I don’t want to be the underdog. I want to win, and Rocky won.” – Klopp discusses Liverpool’s hopes of dethroning Manchester City ahead of the 2018-19 Premier League season.

“Very erotic voice, by the way, the translator. Congratulations! Wow!… Again, please!” – Klopp begins his response to a question from a French journalist by complimenting the translator during a press conference ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain in November 2018.

“We know this club is a mix of atmosphere, emotion, desire and football quality. Cut off one and it doesn’t work – we know that. If I have to describe this club, then it’s a big heart and tonight it was obviously pounding like crazy. You could hear it and probably feel it all over the world.” – Klopp with a wonderful explanation of the epic fightback against Barcelona in 2019, as Liverpool overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit with a stunning 4-0 victory at Anfield.

“It’s ten past 10. Most of the children are probably already in bed… So, these boys are f*cking mentality giants! It’s unbelievable! Fine me if you want, but I don’t have better words for it!” – Klopp can’t control his language (and who could blame him?!) after the Barcelona win.

“I cannot really describe it because I cried a little bit as well because it’s so overwhelming what the people are doing. When you have a direct eye contact and you see how much it means to them, that’s touching, to be honest.” – Klopp admits that he was overcome with emotion during Liverpool’s victory parade after their Champions League triumph in 2019.

“If you go nuts and start taking drugs and drinking and driving different cars or whatever, and leave your missus at home because you are now the Champions League winner, then I can’t help you.” – Klopp warns players against letting the club’s sixth European Cup success go to their heads, in his own inimitable style.

“What a story! ADRIAN!” – Klopp revisits his beloved Rocky theme after his Spanish reserve goalkeeper’s penalty-saving heroics in the UEFA Super Cup clash with Chelsea in August 2019.

“I can imagine it is really hard to follow us and I am sorry for that. But, at least at the end, most of the time, there is some relief!” – Klopp apologises to the fans for yet another dramatic victory, after Liverpool score twice in the final five minutes to win 2-1 at Aston Villa in November 2019

“Of course, we don’t want to play in front of an empty stadium and we don’t want games or competitions suspended, but if doing so helps one individual stay healthy – just one – we do it no questions asked.” – Klopp puts Liverpool’s Premier League title pursuit in 2019-20 into perspective at the height of the pandemic.

“My message is: it is for you out there. It is really for you.” – In June 2020, Klopp dedicates Liverpool’s first English title triumph in 30 years to the club’s supporters.

Klopp: “Why can everybody say the word but if I say it, then it’s not okay?”

Press Officer: “Which word?”

Klopp: “Brain-f*ck!”

Press Officer: “No, brain-fog!”

Klopp: “Ah, okay, it sounds exactly the same in my head, to be honest!” – Klopp’s press conference ahead of a game against Newcastle in 2022 begins with a hilarious misunderstanding.

“You can’t imagine how much I enjoyed [this meeting] because this club is all about the people who support it, and you are one of the most special. I am, like you, very close to crying. Life without emotions, imagine that, how boring would it be! So, you might think this was fantastic for you, but it was fantastic for me too. Thank you very much!” – Klopp shows just why he is so loved at Liverpool while giving young fan Dáire Gorman a tour of the club’s training ground in December 2023.

“I will leave the club at the end of the season. I can understand that that’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it. I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take. It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy…. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again. After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.” – Klopp stuns the football world by announcing his decision to step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the 2023-24 season.

“In my more than 20 years, it was easily the most special trophy I have ever won. It is absolutely exceptional. I wish I could feel proud more often. Tonight that is the overwhelming feeling. I was proud of our people for the way they pushed us. It was nothing to do with it maybe being my last game at Wembley. It was about how everybody contributed with the kids.” – Klopp can barely contain his joy after an injury-ravaged Liverpool beat Chelsea at Wembley to lift the Carabao Cup in his final season in charge.

“I didn’t make them believe. I reminded them that it helps when you believe.” – Klopp revisits an old theme in one of his final press conferences.

Klopp: “Hello, and sorry [for being late].”

Journalist: “That’s twice in two weeks!”

Klopp: “To be honest, who gives a s…?!” – Klopp really cuts loose at the tail end of his tenure.

“”It was everything you want it to be. I really believe there’s a Liverpool way. When you win one time with Liverpool, it is worth as much as five with another club…. We gave Liverpool the best time of our life, and the other way around as well. That’s the best thing that I take from here, that I’m obviously allowed to think that I will never walk alone ever again in my life.” – Klopp looks back on a truly remarkable relationship with a football club.