One senior figure at Barcelona has dropped a thinly-veiled hint that the Catalan giants would consider hiring Jurgen Klopp after he leaves Liverpool.
Both clubs will have new managers by the start of next season, with Xavi swiftly following the 56-year-old in confirming that he’ll exit his current post at the end of the campaign.
The German has been linked with potentially taking the reins at Camp Nou later this year, and Barca sporting director Deco has done little to quell such speculation.
He told La Vanguardia [via Fabrizio Romano]: “Klopp is a top coach, but I don’t think this is the moment to speak about it. We have many options; the future head coach will be discussed later.”
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Despite Deco insisting that now isn’t ‘the moment to speak about’ a potential swoop for Klopp, he’s indirectly done so with these comments, which strongly suggest that the Liverpool manager could be a prime candidate among the Barcelona hierarchy.
Any team in world football would surely love to have the 56-year-old in charge, based on his track record in management and the intangible galvanising effect he’s had not just on the Reds, but also in his previous posts at Borussia Dortmund and Mainz.
Speculation about the German’s future is inevitable, especially now that he’s confirmed he’ll be leaving Anfield at the end of the season, but such is his professionalism that his mind will be focused solely on LFC until our final match of the campaign.
Klopp attributed the need to rediscover his ‘energy’ as the reason for stepping down at Liverpool, so it doesn’t seem likely that he’d jump straight into the Camp Nou goldfish bowl, where not even a club legend in Xavi – who won the LaLiga title only last year – is safe from the fans’ opprobrium.
It might be a possibility further down the line, but we don’t expect it to happen straight after he ends his time with the Reds.
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