Jurgen Klopp a work-shy ‘clown’ ‘chewing bricks with his teeth’, says actual UEFA delegate

Will Ford
Klopp
Jurgen Klopp now works for Red Bull after leaving Liverpool in the summer of 2024.

Jurgen Klopp has been labelled a work-shy “clown” who was “chewing bricks with his teeth” at Liverpool by an actual UEFA official.

Klopp became a Liverpool legend in his nine seasons at the club, delivering five major trophies including the Champions League and Premier League.

He left at the end of the 2023/2024 season, citing exhaustion, and is now the Global Sports Director for the Red Bull group.

He has been targeted by Florin Prunea, a former Romanian international and current UEFA delegate, on a YouTube podcast called IamSport, on which he has previously stated that English women “look like cows”.

That gives you a fair indication of the calibre of the man, who is also the former president of FC Dinamo, and how much attention we should pay to his nonsense.

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Bit his standing as a UEFA delegate, whose job it is to ensure matches run smoothly by overseeing all aspects of a game, acting as a link to UEFA headquarters, makes this a quite extraordinary diatribe, in which he not only takes aim at Klopp’s character, but also his physical appearance.

Prunea mocked Klopp’s teeth, dismissed him as a “circus act” and claims he took the job with Red Bull “just to collect money without working.”

The exchange started after Mircea Lucescu, Romania’s national team coach, stated that Romania’s victory over Austria was “first and foremost his”.

Host Costin Stucan disagreed, citing a famous Jurgen Klopp quote: “The defeats are mine, the victories are yours (the players’).”

 

Full English translation:

Stucan: “The defeats are mine, the victories are yours.” In short, that was his statement.

Prunea: So what do you want to tell me about Jurgen Klopp, or what?

Stucan: Yes, he’s a man who won the Champions League.

Prunea: There is a hierarchy. It has to be that way.

Stucan: Still, there’s a difference in approach. A difference in energy.

Prunea: The president (meaning: the one answering to the owner) pays in front of the owner, yes, the coach pays in front of the president, and so on. You don’t explain by saying “I’m the only one guilty.” Everyone is guilty.

Stucan: No, you didn’t understand anything. That’s the message… That’s why Klopp is Klopp.

Prunea: And he’s still coaching? He’s not coaching anymore.

Stucan: Well, he’s not coaching right now, but he did coach.

Prunea: Leave me with your papagal (note: in Romanian “papagal” literally means “parrot”, but here it is used as an insult meaning “clown/fool”).

Stucan (laughing at the situation): Attention, please. Florin Prunea just called Jurgen Klopp a papagal. Incredible! How can you say something like that? That’s impossible. He won Liverpool’s title. The first title for Liverpool after 30 years.

Prunea: That circus.

Stucan: The players were obsessed, they would die on the pitch for him.

Prunea: Yes, that’s why he left.

Stucan: No, he didn’t leave because of that.

Prunea: Then why did he leave Liverpool? How long was that?

Stucan: Eight years.

Prunea: Then why did he leave Liverpool? Why did he leave Liverpool?

Stucan: Because he was consumed by the intensity of the job. Because he, you see, prepared every match as if it were the last. Unlike other coaches, who only prepared the match against Austria properly.

Prunea: But why isn’t he coaching anymore? He went to Red Bull. He went to Red Bull Salzburg just to hang around and get some money for nothing.

Stucan: He was working. Incredible. You are absolutely terrible sometimes. Terrible. That’s it, football is dead. Florin Prunea says Klopp is not a coach.

Prunea: I never liked him. All that circus… You’d say he was chewing bricks with his teeth.

Stucan: One of the greatest coaches in history.

Prunea: Height. How tall was he? 1.90, 1.50 (cm)?

 

Is there nothing UEFA won’t tolerate from its representatives? Unbelievable.