By Chinomnso Kalu
Borussia Dortmund, on Wednesday, officially announced that its manager for seven years, Jurgen Klopp, is leaving the club at the end of this season. Anybody who thinks about Dortmund, thinks about Klopp almost immediately. To a large extent, he's become a symbol of the club. He previously coached Mainz 05, but stepped into the limelight at the Westfalenstadion (Signal Iduna Park), creating a team known throughout the world of football for playing a high octane, fast flowing and efficient style of football which brought them a lot of success and plaudits. So why is he leaving now ?
On the surface, the answer is quite clear, the team has fallen from grace. They have performed extremely poorly this season by their lofty standards. In fact, Dortmund are almost unrecognisable. They started the season abysmally, losing matches they normally would have won comfortably and a good number of them after taking the lead...at home and away. The fact that this happened severally at home, in the world famous Signal Iduna Park atmosphere, in front of their die-hard fans is just lamentable. At the mid-point of the season, they were down in the relegation zone and there were genuine whispers if not loud talks of the possibility of relegation. This is a team that hitherto steadily gave Bayern Munich a run for their money, season after season, after Klopp's arrival. They improved though and now sit in 10th position in the Bundesliga but are in poor form again. Their woes are in no small part due to the loss of Robert Lewandowski, their now former star striker, to Bayern Munich and the absence from the team of injury-stricken talisman, Marco Reus, for most of the season. It's safe to say Klopp has had enough and is jumping ship but it's surely too early to throw in the towel so his decision to step down may not have been based on their shortcomings. A football pitch is like a stage for a play (no pun intended), enter stage left, act, exit stage right. Those who are not 'actors' know little, if anything, about what goes on backstage. The point is, his decision may have been made or aided by things that happened or are happening behind the scenes.
He'll be missed though, he will, especially by the Dortmund faithful. In his seven seasons at the helm, he led the club to two Bundesliga titles, one DFB Pokal and the final of the UEFA Champions League where they lost to archrivals Bayern Munich. He also orchestrated that unforgettable 4-1 semi-final victory over Real Madrid in the same competition that year. Bayern Munich is the undisputed monarch of German football but under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp, Dortmund nearly succeeded in making the Bundesliga a diarchy. The rest of the football world, those unattached to Dortmund will miss the sight of the good-natured man with the scraggly beard on the Signal Iduna Park touchline, with a bright yellow cap on his head. He looked at home there, literally, sporting the unkempt look and without a care in the world for himself, only bothered about his team. They loved him and he loved them back.
Now the questions on everybody's lips are, what next for Jurgen Klopp ? What next for Dortmund ? The man himself answered one of those questions at the press conference held by the club on Wednesday afternoon saying, "it's not that I'm tired, I don't have any contact with another club but I don't plan to take a year off either". Very vague. Well if he doesn't know or won't divulge what he will do, we sure know what he could do. The media are strongly linking him with a move to Manchester City to replace their beleaguered manager, Manuel Pellegrini, this summer. No surprise there. Klopp could also be heading to Liverpool, with Rodgers on thin ice or even Arsenal whose fans are forever hot and cold on whether they want Wenger to remain at the helm of their club. After the news about Klopp broke, Piers Morgan, a prominent Arsenal fan tweeted "Klopp would be our Mourinho. The time has come Arsenal - act". He also added the hashtag #KloppIN and went on to call him a dynamic and driven young winner. At least there's one Arsenal fan who knows what he wants. Some are also going as far as saying he could replace Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti who has had a few problems this season. That is definitely far-fetched but with Madrid, you just never know.
As for his team, it will definitely be hard for them to adjust after he leaves. One also wonders if it was a wise decision to make this announcement now, with the team going through the toughest of times. Will it make them improve and end the season as well as is now possible to give their manager a good send-off or will the news beat down their morale even further. The sure thing is a few of his coveted players will follow him out of the club. The likes of Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Marco Reus. They may even join him at his next club.
All in all, the news of his departure came as a shock to the football world but we can do nothing but wait and see what happens next - where Klopp goes next. Wherever that is, they'll be lucky to have such a great character at their football club but it's definitely sad to see such a beautiful thing come to an end.
Borussia Dortmund, on Wednesday, officially announced that its manager for seven years, Jurgen Klopp, is leaving the club at the end of this season. Anybody who thinks about Dortmund, thinks about Klopp almost immediately. To a large extent, he's become a symbol of the club. He previously coached Mainz 05, but stepped into the limelight at the Westfalenstadion (Signal Iduna Park), creating a team known throughout the world of football for playing a high octane, fast flowing and efficient style of football which brought them a lot of success and plaudits. So why is he leaving now ?
On the surface, the answer is quite clear, the team has fallen from grace. They have performed extremely poorly this season by their lofty standards. In fact, Dortmund are almost unrecognisable. They started the season abysmally, losing matches they normally would have won comfortably and a good number of them after taking the lead...at home and away. The fact that this happened severally at home, in the world famous Signal Iduna Park atmosphere, in front of their die-hard fans is just lamentable. At the mid-point of the season, they were down in the relegation zone and there were genuine whispers if not loud talks of the possibility of relegation. This is a team that hitherto steadily gave Bayern Munich a run for their money, season after season, after Klopp's arrival. They improved though and now sit in 10th position in the Bundesliga but are in poor form again. Their woes are in no small part due to the loss of Robert Lewandowski, their now former star striker, to Bayern Munich and the absence from the team of injury-stricken talisman, Marco Reus, for most of the season. It's safe to say Klopp has had enough and is jumping ship but it's surely too early to throw in the towel so his decision to step down may not have been based on their shortcomings. A football pitch is like a stage for a play (no pun intended), enter stage left, act, exit stage right. Those who are not 'actors' know little, if anything, about what goes on backstage. The point is, his decision may have been made or aided by things that happened or are happening behind the scenes.
He'll be missed though, he will, especially by the Dortmund faithful. In his seven seasons at the helm, he led the club to two Bundesliga titles, one DFB Pokal and the final of the UEFA Champions League where they lost to archrivals Bayern Munich. He also orchestrated that unforgettable 4-1 semi-final victory over Real Madrid in the same competition that year. Bayern Munich is the undisputed monarch of German football but under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp, Dortmund nearly succeeded in making the Bundesliga a diarchy. The rest of the football world, those unattached to Dortmund will miss the sight of the good-natured man with the scraggly beard on the Signal Iduna Park touchline, with a bright yellow cap on his head. He looked at home there, literally, sporting the unkempt look and without a care in the world for himself, only bothered about his team. They loved him and he loved them back.
Now the questions on everybody's lips are, what next for Jurgen Klopp ? What next for Dortmund ? The man himself answered one of those questions at the press conference held by the club on Wednesday afternoon saying, "it's not that I'm tired, I don't have any contact with another club but I don't plan to take a year off either". Very vague. Well if he doesn't know or won't divulge what he will do, we sure know what he could do. The media are strongly linking him with a move to Manchester City to replace their beleaguered manager, Manuel Pellegrini, this summer. No surprise there. Klopp could also be heading to Liverpool, with Rodgers on thin ice or even Arsenal whose fans are forever hot and cold on whether they want Wenger to remain at the helm of their club. After the news about Klopp broke, Piers Morgan, a prominent Arsenal fan tweeted "Klopp would be our Mourinho. The time has come Arsenal - act". He also added the hashtag #KloppIN and went on to call him a dynamic and driven young winner. At least there's one Arsenal fan who knows what he wants. Some are also going as far as saying he could replace Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti who has had a few problems this season. That is definitely far-fetched but with Madrid, you just never know.
As for his team, it will definitely be hard for them to adjust after he leaves. One also wonders if it was a wise decision to make this announcement now, with the team going through the toughest of times. Will it make them improve and end the season as well as is now possible to give their manager a good send-off or will the news beat down their morale even further. The sure thing is a few of his coveted players will follow him out of the club. The likes of Mats Hummels, Ilkay Gundogan and Marco Reus. They may even join him at his next club.
All in all, the news of his departure came as a shock to the football world but we can do nothing but wait and see what happens next - where Klopp goes next. Wherever that is, they'll be lucky to have such a great character at their football club but it's definitely sad to see such a beautiful thing come to an end.