Red Bull boss Oliver Mintzlaff has admitted he first spoke to Jurgen Klopp about working together more than two years ago.
After stepping down as Liverpool manager in the summer, Klopp was unveiled as Red Bull’s new global head of football, a role he will take up on January 1. The timing of the appointment, coupled with Red Bull’s unpopularity in German football, saw Klopp attract immense criticism for taking the job.
According to Mintzlaff, talks with Klopp had been underway for more than two years, and things progressed rapidly this summer when the former Liverpool and the Borussia Dortmund manager finally gave his full approval.
“Over the last 20 years, I’ve experienced, helped train and negotiated a lot of negotiations in football. I have to say that when he got the yes, it was the easiest,” said Mintzlaff. IMAGE. “Not because we offered him an incredible economic package, on the contrary. We talked about the financial part for 20 seconds because he said he was ready for the task. I hope he doesn’t hear that now, because then he will think. that he and his Councilor they negotiated badly!
“But no, financially it took 20 seconds. When the yes was there, it was one of the easiest negotiations I’ve done in 20 years.
“It took a long time. It was a very, very long process. The first idea was more than two years ago, when I first discussed it with Jurgen. He said, ‘I think this is great, I think it’s impressive, not just what’s happening in football, but also the sport that Red Bull is involved in, how much is being done for young talent…’ This has always interested him and moved him.
“But at some point he told me he was extending his stay at Liverpool and that, of course, was a disappointment for me because then that little door closed.
“When he announced his departure, we met at his place in Liverpool a few months later and I started again with my subject and told him a lot of things, where I think we could use him and it would be an exciting task for him .And then he said, ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ I had to slap myself in the face.
