Jurgen Klopp didn’t need to be asked twice when he named the best player he’s ever managed.
The Liverpool manager appreciates a particular type of player and he overlooked the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Marco Reus, Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan when asked to name the best he’s ever coached.
“Mario Gotze,” Klopp answered during a Q&A event with Soccer Laduma in Cape Town on Wednesday.
“He was unbelievable. The biggest improvement, though, was [Robert] Lewandowski.
“I keep in contact with a lot of my Dortmund players.
“They were young when I coached them, so I was like a father to them.
“When I left Dortmund, it’s not so important what people think when you come, it’s more important what they think when you leave.”
Klopp handed a first-team debut to Gotze, who rose through the Dortmund ranks as a youngster, in 2009 and oversaw his development into one of the most promising midfield talents in world football.
Gotze signed for Bayern Munich in 2013 but never really lived up to the lofty expectations at the Allianz Arena and returned to Dortmund last year.
His career highlight to date will almost certainly have been the added time winner he scored to deliver the World Cup to Germany in 2014.
