Jurgen Klopp at the invitation that he cannot refuse and what will happen comes out of Liverpool

The world of football is coming to an end for Jurgen Klopp early next month. But after being on the touchline the last time Borussia Dortmund were in a Champions League final at Wembley, the Liverpool boss will be in the stands this time around.

And rather than plotting the downfall of Dortmund’s opponents, Klopp has another problem to deal with when his former club take on Real Madrid on June 1.

“We have now received an invitation to the Champions League final,” he says. “They said, ‘I don’t think he’ll come’, but of course I’ll come, it’s the Champions League final and I’ve got nothing to do really!

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“But then I also need more tickets. It’s the first time in my life I’ve asked for tickets – normally I’m the one who always gets asked! It’s a really weird feeling. I’ve never, never been never had to ask for tickets Now I ask you, it really feels weird.

“That’s one thing, apart from the fact that we haven’t planned anything (after he leaves Liverpool). At the Euros we will watch the games and have tickets for a few games. Being in Germany for a long time, meeting friends, nothing spectacular, just easy, not planning a pre-season, definitely not going to be involved in any kind of transfer talks, which is such a difference I’m looking forward to.

Having only had a few months away from football since making his professional debut with Mainz aged 23 in 1990 – a break interrupted by a call-up from Liverpool in October 2015 – Klopp is now ready to adapt to a new life without the responsibilities day-to-day demands of the game, with his final hurrah as Reds boss coming against Wolves on Sunday at what will be an emotional Anfield.

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone once said, when discussing the weight of responsibility as a manager, that he is happiest when he is asleep because no one can talk to him. And for Klopp, such an opinion resonates.

“I hope everyone recognizes that I’m a little different from him!” he laughs. “But I recognize what he’s saying, absolutely. To meet me, besides Ulla (his wife) means quite a lot to talk about football. They are for people like Google – “why are you doing this? why are you doing this? blah blah blah. “Friends come to visit, watch the game and for me it’s a holiday for them, and for me it’s a holiday.

“I don’t have a personal problem with you (journalists) but you send a lousy message when I’m not at my best. This is where we collide.

“But it’s very often when you fall asleep (referring to the original question). I listen to a lot of audiobooks. I like to read, but when I read, everyone can talk to me. When I have my headphones on, people realize that I’m obviously not listening. It’s the responsibility for the whole thing, it’s probably one of my strongest characteristics to feel responsible for an incredible amount of things, if I know about something at the time it’s within my reach, then I’m responsible for it.”

From around six-thirty on Sunday, however, such concerns about Liverpool will not be Klopp’s concern. Indeed, hours after the German held his final pre-match press conference as Reds manager at the AXA Training Center on Friday, Feyenoord boss Arne Slot confirmed the secret that he will be next in line.

Klopp announced back in January his intention to leave at the end of the season after almost nine years in charge at Anfield and while he is confident there will be no problems with his successor at the club, he is keenly aware of the impact he will have his departure. on the united community he helped foster.

“It was a big thing when I said I’m going to step aside here, because I know what it means to a lot of other people, what they think and how they’re used to me (being here),” he says. “There’s a great mood here, a really good relationship. Bad days or good days, there’s a really nice atmosphere in this building. We like each other. The reason for that is if I don’t feel great when I walk into the building , I don’t let them feel it. and so on. We like working with each other at all.

“I know the next (manager) will be a nice guy and everything will be fine, but it will be a change. There is a lot of uncertainty for people and I didn’t want that for them. But I knew that if I did (I chose to leave) in a year or two more years, for these people it would be exactly the same, but in a year or two years can’t be the reason why I didn’t , I had to overcome that.

“I had to think about myself first, which actually doesn’t happen a lot because I can handle almost anything. So that means come to me and tell me and that’s fine, I’ll fix it or not, but I can take it But that’s changed now, coaches go everywhere, for some it’s fine. But we’ve had almost nine years at a club and it’s very rare to appreciate the time we spend together and we all see that now, but at first it was obviously difficult.”

Although he is not retired, the sabbatical – Klopp is determined to take at least a year off to spend with his family, having recently become a grandfather – will give him the opportunity to live a life away from football. Will he miss the match though?

“I don’t know, obviously,” he says. “I didn’t miss anything in the short break I had after Dortmund, sometimes I had to realize on Saturday that there is a Bundesliga. But it’s my life, so I might miss it. But I have to throw a look the other way because it makes absolutely no sense.

“I love what I do, but it’s super intense and there’s no space for anything else. There’s no space. It’s just not there. If you look at my three clubs, we’re always building a training ground, we’re always expanding a stadium or build a stadium, whatever, so these jobs, I didn’t have normal jobs, I wasn’t a coach in the sense that you plan a session, go home and take a shower and especially it’s not like that.

“I have to find out if I’m going to miss it and if I’m going to miss it, I could change that or I’ll figure it out, but it’s still so good, everything else, that I miss it and I try to I take it from somewhere else. So in a few months I’m turning 57, I’m not going to stop working but it has to be just like that I don’t think so at the moment but we’ll see later?

“Obviously the world is crazy and directors of football, managers, there are a lot of clubs that are not 100% sure, so if I leave the door a little bit open and say: ‘I could sign a contract today for next season or probably ( from ) two years – I just don’t want that at all, I want to have a proper break and figure out what it does for me.

If anyone ever earned a break from football, it’s Klopp. A new era awaits – both for Liverpool and the outgoing manager.