Chat with Jurgen Klopp who changed the game for thousands

A single conversation with Jurgen Klopp would go on to change the game for thousands.

As the Reds boss steps down as manager of Liverpool FC this weekend, it appears he and his wife Ulla Sandrock will soon be leaving the region – living in Steven Gerrard’s former home in Formby since 2015.

Despite this, the 56-year-old’s impact on football, not only in Merseyside but on the sporting industry as a whole, will be felt for years to come – particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.

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Paul Amann, founder of Liverpool FC’s LGBT+ supporter group Kop Outs, told the ECHO: “It’s hard to think of a post-Jurgen world. But what I do know is that he left the foundation for the future in a much stronger place than when he arrived.

“We look forward to continued positive relationships with whoever takes the reins in the future. We know this won’t be another Jurgen though, because there’s only one.

“The ability of any leader is best encapsulated in what Jurgen was. It was to raise the voices of those who are marginalized and truly fit the Scouse archetype of solidarity and reciprocity and doing right by others.

“That’s what Jurgen really used and that’s what it was about. All we can ask of a future manager is to think about where he is doing and what our fans are about.”

Under Klopp, the club quickly countered any questionable chants from the terraces, took responsibility and called out those involved.

A more memorable example was when Klopp urged “stupid fans” to stop using a homophobic chant against Chelsea’s on-loan Norwich midfielder Billy Gilmour during Liverpool FC’s first match of the 2021/22 season . Following the match, Jurgen invited Paul Amann to the Reds’ training ground in Kirkby to discuss the impact of homophobia in football.

The Liverpool boss said: “Obviously it makes people feel uncomfortable within our own fan base. For the supporters group and for me, that means: that’s it, let’s go to another one.

“I think it’s an easy decision and it should be an easy decision. I’m not sure if people listen to me, but it would be nice. I don’t want to hear it anymore for so many reasons.”

Paul said he is still thanked for that conversation to this day.

He added: “The more I hear from other fans about the impact the conversation had, the more I realize it was perhaps the most important thing we could have done with Jurgen. To have it, to raise our voices and join the campaign to say enough is enough is incredible.

“I was at an event just last night with a lot of fans, from all different backgrounds, and I had multiple people come up to me and shake my hand and thank me for that conversation with him.

“It was so humbling because these are fans from all over the world, from Denmark and local boys. You want to make a difference in life and Jurgen made that difference possible for us, we wouldn’t have got half as far without him.

“I don’t know a fan who doesn’t have huge respect for Jurgen’s choice to leave on his own terms. None of us want to be sitting there on a half-empty battery, so to speak. But we are very careful that we want to have a memory that is a pure memory of Jurgen – what he has done, how much we will miss him, it is almost without parallel.”

Rishi Jain, LFC’s senior manager of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), previously claimed “following” Paul’s meeting with Jurgen “there was a clear and intentional change in behavior within our supporter base against homophobic chanting once our fans were educated about the impact of what many didn’t realize was offensive.”

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