Drive change with Klopp
Schmadtke thought Liverpool were kidding him
05/30/2023, 1:25 p.m
Jörg Schmadtke becomes sporting director at Liverpool FC. With team manager Jürgen Klopp he should drive the upheaval at the Reds. At first, however, the self-proclaimed football “pensioner” thinks someone would “allow themselves to have fun with me”.
At first, Jörg Schmadtke could hardly believe that he should really be on the list of the big Liverpool FC as a football “pensioner”. “I thought someone would have fun with me,” the 59-year-old reported with a smile in the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung”: “But then I quickly understood that it was reality.”
And that will lead him to a crucial role in the traditional English football club on Thursday: with Jürgen Klopp, Schmadtke will be the new sporting director to turn the Reds back into a top European team. After missing the Champions League, a big upheaval is imminent.
“We have agreed that I will first work as sporting director until the end of the transfer period, after which we will sit down and see what happens next,” said the long-time Bundesliga manager, who will officially succeed Julian Ward on June 1: “Of course, Jürgen Klopp was also an important building block, after all he’s in charge of the sport.”
Klopp: Schmadtke a “good, clever guy”
Schmadtke actually had completely different plans after he gave up his position as managing director of VfL Wolfsburg after almost five years in January and retired. He wanted to travel the world, he told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, his wife Anna would “take over the planning from now on, and she deserves it”. But now the Liverpool station is following – and Schmadtke is “very happy” about that, as he emphasized.
Schmadtke enjoys an excellent reputation at the LFC. He brings “a wealth of knowledge and experience,” said Mike Gordon, president of Fenway Sports Group, which owns the club: “Jörg will work with our football department to continue to support Jurgen Klopp, in line with our ongoing endeavours to further develop the club in all areas.”
Klopp gushed a few days ago when the rumors circulated. Schmadtke is a “good, clever guy” and “very good at what he did in Germany, very successful,” said the coach, who said the former goalkeeper had a “good personality” and a “good sense of humor”. “We’ve known each other for a long time – I him longer than he me because he was a much better player,” said Klopp, recalling with a smile that he started his coaching career in Mainz in the same year as Schmadtke started his career as sporting director, in 2001 Alemannia Aachen.
They once stood together on the pitch as opponents. On July 26, 1992, Klopp and Mainz won 2-1 at Schmadtke’s Fortuna Düsseldorf, 4,200 spectators were in the stadium for this second division game more than 30 years ago. Now significantly more people will be watching what the two are doing together in Liverpool.