German media outlet Sport1 have cancelled their plans to provide viewers a ‘KloppCam’, available during the entire 90 minutes of tonight’s Europa League clash between Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, reports ESPN.
They’d planned on filming Klopp’s every move and moment on the touchline during his current and former club’s clash, using a ‘KloppCam’ instead of the individual player cameras you occasionally see via certain broadcasters.
When he heard of the plan, Klopp was not amused, baffled by how his role off the pitch is deemed more important than the 22 players on it.
“I don’t play. If someone is silly enough to want to see my face for 90 minutes during a game I cannot change the world,” he said.
“I can’t believe it is like this but if it is true I have to think about whether I will really talk with this television station in my life again. I’m pretty sure I will not, if I don’t have to.”
Pretty much all of the attention before this evening’s quarterfinal has been on Klopp and his return to the club where he won two Bundesliga titles and made his name.
Considering the likes of Coutinho, Marco Reus, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Roberto Firmino and Pierre-Emrick Aubameyang are taking the field, this seems all the more crazy – but it’s a testament to how loved Klopp was and still is in Germany.
If he can take the pressure off our players then all the better, although they’ll be playing in a more intense atmosphere than anything they would have experienced this season. Dortmund have the highest average attendance in Europe, and provide electric, terrific support during game nights.