Klopp takes over the German national team until 2030
Jürgen Klopp is back to work on the pitch. Two years after leaving Liverpool, exhausted following almost a decade in charge, the German coach has struck a deal to take over the German national team until 2030. The confirmation came on Friday morning, a few days after Julian Nagelsmann’s resignation.
A quick agreement, a robust contract
The negotiation advanced at an accelerated pace as soon as Nagelsmann’s departure became official. Representatives of the German federation (DFB) flew to New York on June 10 to talk with Klopp and his agent, and the skeleton of the deal emerged almost immediately: a contract of seven million euros a year, close to what Nagelsmann was earning, with a term set to go beyond the 2030 World Cup.
The difference lies in the scope. While Nagelsmann acted basically as a national-team selector, Klopp arrives with a much broader mandate, including structural work on the development of young players in the country. He was, incidentally, already part of a technical structure without any residual ties. There was also a curious contractual detail: Red Bull, Klopp’s employer over the last 18 months, released the coach on the condition that the DFB make a one-million-euro donation to the brand’s charitable foundation, and that three of the national team’s friendlies be played in Leipzig, the home of the Austrian group’s club in the country.
The fiasco that opened the door
Nagelsmann had been worn down for months. The good run at Euro 2024, with an honourable elimination in the quarter-finals against Spain, gave way to a string of stumbles after the retirements of Thomas Müller, İlkay Gündoğan and Manuel Neuer, plus Toni Kroos’s definitive departure. Without the backbone that sustained the previous generation, the team dwindled in the 2025 Nations League and struggled in the World Cup qualifiers.
Controversial decisions – such as calling Neuer back and leaving out Oliver Baumann, or fielding captain Joshua Kimmich at right-back instead of in midfield – soured the mood even further. The result came at this year’s World Cup, in the United States: elimination on penalties against Paraguay in the round of 16, Germany’s first World Cup defeat in a penalty shootout.
From the TV studio to the bench
Klopp experienced the same tournament from a very different place: alongside Müller, as a star pundit for Magenta TV, which held the broadcasting rights to all the games. The pairing produced light moments, but also awkward ones – Klopp even publicly suggested bringing Deniz Undav into the starting eleven and later apologised to Nagelsmann on air. At half-time of the game against Paraguay, with Germany losing, he dismantled the team’s defence and described the display as something that “brings tears to your eyes”.
Klopp’s relationship with the national team, however, goes back a long way. He has been analysing German football on television since 2003, gained national fame as a commentator at the 2006 World Cup – the so-called “Sommermärchen”, the country’s magical summer – and has since carried popular prestige equivalent to that of a national coach even out of the role. After Bundesliga and German Cup titles with Borussia Dortmund and the Premier League and Champions League triumphs with Liverpool, his name never stopped circulating as the federation’s dream target.
Now, at 58, he swaps the microphone for the training whistle. The challenge is to rebuild a national team that has lost tactical identity, squad renewal and, above all, confidence – all of it with eyes already turned to the next big goal, the 2030 World Cup.
