The life and career of Jürgen Klopp: family, titles won in Dortmund and Liverpool

Meet one of Jurgen Klopp's frustrated dreams 0:31

(CNN Spanish) -

The German Jürgen Klopp is one of the best soccer coaches.

In the current 2021-2022 season, he has already won two trophies with Liverpool (a team he has managed since 2015): the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup.

In addition, Klopp led the English club to the Champions League final, which will play against Real Madrid on Saturday, May 28.

• This will be the new Champions League: more teams and change of format

Beyond the current success, the German technical director has built his career for several years, with success stories that only a coach like him, eccentric and at the same time humble, could achieve.

With Liverpool, Klopp has already won everything possible at club level, so his most recent contract renewal as manager of the team until 2026 was no surprise.

However, we are going to go back a few decades in the past to see what Jürgen Klopp's trajectory has been throughout his career.

advertising

Jurgen Klopp in data

personal

Place of birth:

Stuttgart, Germany, according to the specialized site Transfermarkt.

Date of birth:

June 16, 1967.

Age:

54 years.

Wife:

Ulla Sandrock, whom he married in 2005, according to the local Liverpool Echo newspaper.

She is a writer of children's fiction novels.

Children:

Marc Klopp, who was a player in several German clubs until his retirement in 2015, says Transfermarkt.

Also, Liverpool Echo says that he has another son, but does not mention his name.

And the local newspaper adds that both children are from a previous marriage to Sandrock, who also has children from another marriage.

First years as a footballer: "talent for the fifth division"

The Transfermarkt site indicates that Jurgen Klopp began as a footballer in 1986. From that year until 1990, he was in several teams in his native country, all of them in categories below the first division of Germany.

Starting in July 1990, Klopp moved to Mainz 05, the team with which he would play the rest of his career, which came to an end in February 2001. During this time, Mainz was always in the German second division (known as as the 2. Bundesliga, while the first division is simply known as the Bundesliga).

According to Liverpool's official website, Klopp said he never had a great talent on the pitch to capture what was on his mind.

"I never managed to bring to the field what was going through my head," Klopp said.

"He had the talent for the fifth division, and the mind for the Bundesliga. The result was a career in the second division."

That great mind would lead him to manage his first team after his retirement in 2001. Where did he end up?

Al Mainz 05, his lifelong team.

The Bundesliga website points out that Klopp took the club in conditions of relegation to the third division, but at that moment the magic of the German coach began: after three years, in 2004, he managed to get the team into the Bundesliga for the first time. in its history and in 2005 it took them to play in the first round of the Europa League.

After the 2006-2007 season, Klopp and Mainz were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga, indicates Transfermarkt.

The German coach stayed on for the 2007-2008 season to try to get Mainz back into the Bundesliga, but fell one place in the table short of doing so.

Despite this, "Klopp had already established himself as a coach with a great reputation. Therefore, it is not surprising that Borussia Dortmund rushed to sign him in the summer of 2008, with the intention of recovering from his 13th place of the season previous", mentions Liverpool.

Success with Borussia Dortmund

Jurgen Klopp was as coach of Dortmund from July 2008 to June 2015. In that period, he was able to achieve, among others, a couple of league titles and a Champions League final.

In seven years, that doesn't seem like much;

however, taking into account that the Bundesliga is a competition dominated by Bayern Munich, taking two titles from them is quite a feat.

These are Klopp's titles with Dortmund:

• Twice Bundesliga champion: in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.

• German Cup Champion: 2011-2012.

• Twice champion of the German Supercup: 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.

• Champions League Final (lost to Bayern Munich): 2012-2013.

"In 2012-13, Dortmund reached the Champions League final, where they were beaten by Bayern Munich, but defeat at the hands of a more resourceful opponent did not damage the manager's reputation," Liverpool said.

Liverpool and worldwide success

As we have already seen, Klopp always takes a few years to lead his clubs to success.

With Liverpool, the story was no different.

back to the top

, who had not seen a league title in their showcases since the 1989-1990 season.

His first attempts to win local titles came in his debut season (2015-2016): in February 2016, he lost the league cup final (now the Carabao Cup) against Manchester City and, in May of that year, suffered a loss in the Europa League final against Sevilla.

But, after those defeats, the current glory of Liverpool began to be forged, which has won six titles since then:

• Premier League: 2019-2020 season, the team's first league title in 30 years.

• Champions League: 2019, the first Champions League they won since that one in 2005, known as "The Miracle of Istanbul".

• UEFA Super Cup (2019)

• FIFA Club World Cup (2019)

• Carabao Cup (2022)

• FA Cup (2022)

What else will we see from Klopp?

He did not achieve the Premier and the Champions still in dispute, in the following days we will have news.