Jürgen Klopp “Will Take a Sabbatical” Following Liverpool Tenure

Photo by Matt Blyth/Getty Images

The manager isn’t certain when he’ll run out of energy for the job, but when he does he will take a year-long break.

Having been with Liverpool for four years now, there’s at least a chance that we’re past the half-way mark of Jürgen Klopp’s tenure with the club. At least based on the manager’s past, with the German having coached for seven years at first Mainz and then Dortmund.

In the past, he hasn’t ruled out extending his time on Merseyside beyond that, but he has always said that doing so will depend on his energy levels and mental health—and now he’s at least said that if he doesn’t stay past 2022, it won’t be because he’s found another job.

“I will take a sabbatical after my time at Liverpool,” Klopp said in this month’s Kicker. “When I decide that I can’t give everything anymore I will quit. Who can say three years from now whether he can do everything or nothing? When that happens I will take a break for a year.”

It’s a fair, and perhaps surprisingly honest, stance. Being a manager at the highest levels is an exceptionally demanding job, and while Klopp clearly has the energy for it now, given his seven years at Mainz and Dortmund it would be foolish for him to promise more now.

He further suggested that any decision on staying at Liverpool beyond 2022 wouldn’t be made any time soon, while he’s committed and energized to doing everything—it would have to come at the end of a season, and maybe even the end of the 2021-22 season.

“If I decide for myself that I can’t go on anymore, I’ll take a break,” he added. “I have absolute energy, but I have one problem: I can’t do ‘a little bit.’ I can only do ‘all or nothing. But the chances are very high that my energy levels will go up again [after a break].”

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com