Kevin-Prince Boateng only played under Jürgen Klopp for half a season, but the Liverpool boss made a lasting impression on the Ghanaian midfielder.
Boateng joined Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund on loan from Tottenham in 2009, playing 10 times as they finished sixth in the Bundesliga.
And while he would join Portsmouth that summer rather than making his loan move permanent, the 29-year-old still has fond memories of the man who helped him turn his career around after an ill-fated move to White Hart Lane.
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“He’s the best coach in the whole world. He knows when to push you and when to comfort you,” Boateng told Sid Lowe in a wide-ranging interview for The Guardian.
“He has everything. Ask the players and they’ll say: ‘He’s the best, I’d die for him.’
“There were players at Dortmund who played five minutes in six months but they were happy: happy to come to training, happy to work, because he made you feel important. Not necessarily as a player – maybe he doesn’t need you – but as a person. That’s why he’s successful everywhere.”
Now at Las Palmas in La Liga, where he is the club’s top scorer this season with six goals in 16 games, Boateng is grateful for the short time he had under Klopp, rather than dwelling too much on not having longer with the coach.
“I’m happy to have met Klopp, to have worked with him, even if it was only six months.”
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