Fifa rule prevents Flick victory: Klopp is surprised and embarrassed

Friday 18th December 2020

Fifa rule prevents Flick victory
Klopp is surprised and embarrassed

By Tobias Nordmann

Despite FC Bayern's triple win, Jürgen Klopp was again named FIFA World Coach of the Year ahead of Hansi Flick. The Liverpool man is overwhelmed – and surprised. In the actually undecided duel between the two coaches, a special FIFA rule applies.

Surprise in the election for world coach of the year 2020 – also for Jürgen Klopp. The team manager of English soccer champions FC Liverpool was embarrassed for a brief moment by his successful title defense at the FIFA gala. "I think a lot of people were surprised when I heard my name. I thought that Hansi Flick would win that," said Klopp at the press conference.

With brutal dominance and outstanding football, Flick had led FC Bayern to the triple, the second in Munich's club history, and won the German and European Supercups, while Klopp "only" brought the long-awaited, first English championship to Liverpool in 30 years. "I can hardly believe it, to be honest. Hansi deserved it, that's why I was so surprised," said Klopp. But he feels that the award as the best coach is a "great honor".

The gala was held virtually due to the pandemic. Shortly after the announcement of the election, an apparently very disappointed Hansi Flick could be seen on the connected stream from Munich. Klopp and Flick were tied in the election – the votes of the national coaches were decisive for the former Dortmund.

"Hansi lets you play football to fall in love with"

How this came about is explained by Fifa in a message from which "Sport1" quotes: "According to the award regulations (Art. 12), Klopp was the winner after a close race with Hans-Dieter Flick because of the votes of the national coaches In the event of a tie in first place after using the above procedure, the appropriate award goes to the player, coach or goalkeeper with the most five-point scores from his own jury group ".

Bayern reacted confidently to the surprise, which caused a lot of outrage and a shit storm against Fifa on social media. "Of course we congratulate Jürgen Klopp on being elected as world coach," said club boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. "But Hansi Flick won five titles in 2020 and lets you fall in love with football. We know he's a great coach. As I've heard, the decision was incredibly close, and no doubt Hansi would have deserved the title." The record champions' social media team tweeted encouraging words for the trainer: "Congratulations on the top three, triple trainer! You are our number one!"

"A real mastermind"

Klopp also bowed to Marcelo Bielsa, who was also "beaten" and is the first coach to be the two-time winner. "Marcelo is one of the most influential coaches in world football, a real mastermind, an outstanding coach," he said of the Argentine who led Leeds United back to the Premier League.

Fifa has chosen the world coach of the year since 2010. As Germans, Jupp Heynckes (2013) and then world champion coach Joachim Löw (2014) prevailed over Klopp last year. The best coach was awarded to Sarina Wiegman from the Netherlands, who most recently coached the national team of female footballers in her country and now works for England.