Some might say that Jurgen Klopp hasn’t been at his charismatic best since he returned to Borussia Dortmund.
Asked ahead of Liverpool’s 1-1 Europa League draw if he was pleased to be back at the club where he announced himself as one of the game’s greatest managers, he responded by saying it was “better than North Korea”, leaving a few people scratching their heads.
It has now emerged that Klopp also rejected a special gift from the founder of the Kloppo Fan Club.
61-year-old Monika Hahn is a lifelong Dortmund fan, and was so delighted to hear that Klopp was returning to his old stomping ground with his new club that she decided to surprise him with a present.
“When I met Kloppo again at the stadium on Wednesday evening he was very polite as always and put his arms around me,” she told the Liverpool Echo.
“When he announced that he would be leaving Dortmund last year, he said it was his dream to experience going around Borsigplatz one more time.”
The Borsigplatz is a square in Dortmund visited by the team when parading any trophies.
“That didn’t happen because we lost the cup final a few weeks later, so I had the special idea to build him his own Borsigplatz,” she continues.
“I asked Kloppo if it would be possible to give him this gift to remember all the good times he had at Dortmund.
“He said, ‘Thank you, but I’m sorry, but I can’t take this now. We are taking this game very seriously. We’ve come here to win and there’s no time for being romantic’. He said he didn’t want to meet anyone. Not even the mayor of the city!”
As harsh as this may sound, ‘Kloppo’ did promise to pick up Monika’s creation at some point in the future.
“He said he will collect the gift at a later date,” she added.
