Jurgen Klopp will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season. The German announced his decision to step down, having informed the club’s ownership of his wish to leave.
Klopp was appointed Reds boss in October 2015 and his contract was due to run until 2026.
The former Borussia Dortmund led Liverpool to their first league title in 30 years in 2019-20, having won the UEFA Champions League the previous season.
“I told the club already in November,” the German told the Liverpool website.
“I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things.
“That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already. When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore’ and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously start thinking about it.
“It didn’t start [then], but of course last season was kind of a super-difficult season and there were moments when at other clubs probably the decision would have been, ‘Come on, thank you very much for everything but probably we should split here, or end it here.’ That didn’t happen here, obviously.
“For me it was super, super, super-important that I can help to bring this team back onto the rails. It was all I was thinking about. When I realised pretty early that happened, it’s a really good team with massive potential and a super age group, super characters and all that, then I could start thinking about myself again and that was the outcome. It is not what I want to [do], it is just what I think is 100% right.”
Assistant managers Pepijn Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, as well as elite development coach Vitor Matos, will also vacate their positions at the end of the season, with Lijnders keen to pursue his own career in management.
