Germany are closing in on Jurgen Klopp as their next manager, though for now this is a deal reported rather than signed.
The DFB has agreed with Klopp on the "key points of a potential contract," per Bundesliga.com, while making clear that talks would run into the following week and still hinged on prising him away from Red Bull. That last obstacle now looks cleared. Klopp said the negotiations were "heading in the right direction" and that his exit was sorted. "I have a deal with Red Bull, a very generous arrangement. So there is no real obstacle now," he said, per beIN Sports.
He would not put a date on it. He came close. "Ideally, it should be done in the next few days," Klopp added.
A word of caution is in order. Nothing has been signed, no press conference has been called, and no outlet had confirmed the appointment as official as of Sunday. This is advanced, not finished.
It is no longer idle speculation, mind. Bundesliga.com, beIN Sports and Goal have all framed the move as agreed in principle. That is a clear shift from a week ago, when Klopp was described only as the favourite.
From the Red Bull boardroom back to the touchline
Klopp has not managed a side since he walked away from Liverpool in 2024. Since then his job has been Red Bull's Head of Global Football, an executive brief steering the drinks group's clubs rather than naming an eleven. The Germany post would put him back in a tracksuit for the first time in more than two years, and hand him an international side for the first time in his career.
The release from that Red Bull role had been the real sticking point, since the DFB said any move depended on it. Klopp, for his part, now sounds satisfied it is done. It would also make him the Bundestrainer, the title Germany reserve for the man in charge of the national team. Few appointments would land bigger at home.
A summer that went wrong
The vacancy exists because of a bruising few weeks. Germany went out of the World Cup in the last 32, beaten by Paraguay on penalties, the first time the nation had ever been knocked out of the tournament in a shootout, per beIN Sports and Goal. For a country that long treated the spot-kick as a formality, it stung. Julian Nagelsmann stepped down soon after.
That is the job Klopp would inherit: a proud football nation picking through an early exit, and a squad short on the certainty it once took for granted.
What happens next
Should the deal be rubber-stamped, the calendar gives Klopp little time to settle. His first assignment would be an away Nations League tie against the Netherlands on 24 September, per Bundesliga.com. No gentle way to begin.
The loose ends still matter. Reports point to a long-term deal, per Goal, but neither the DFB nor Klopp has disclosed the terms. The backroom staff is unsettled too, though Goal reported he could bring back his former Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders.
For now Germany, and much of European football, wait on a signature that all sides expect within days. Klopp, by the sound of it, is waiting too.
Sources
- Bundesliga.com
- beIN Sports
- Goal
- Cover photo: Jurgen Klopp / CC/Wikimedia (see file page) via Wikimedia Commons.
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