Liverpool boss Klopp makes Mourinho playing days jibe: ‘Google it!’

Will Ford

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was forced to rely on Google to find out Jose Mourinho’s position as a player ahead of Liverpool’s showdown with Tottenham.

The jibe – which appeared to be unintended – came as part of a discussion of who had been the better player during their careers on the field.

“Don’t blame me if you don’t know,” the German said, when asked what position Mourinho played.

“Don’t say, ‘Klopp has no clue’. I think he was a goalkeeper. You can play in goal if you can’t walk any more in a charity game. I want to know! Google it! We have time.”

Mourinho’s father, Jose Manuel Mourinho Felix, was a goalkeeper with Vitoria Setubal and Belenenses, and made one international cap for Portugal, but the Spurs boss briefly played as a central midfielder in Portugal’s second tier.

Klopp made a club record 325 appearances for Mainz in Germany’s lower leagues as a striker and defender. “I had fourth-division feet and a first-division head,” the Liverpool manager once said of his playing days.

The 52-year-old also dodged a question as to whether Mourinho still posed the biggest managerial challenge in football.

 

 

“He is a world-class manager with a specific mindset, I would say,” Klopp replied.

“He wants to win with all he has. I respect that a lot. That means each situation his team is in, he tries to use for his team.

“I don’t want to create headlines but I don’t remember that we played a game in the last two or three years that I thought ‘thank God it’s him as a manager and not somebody else’. It’s just tough against all of them for really different reasons.

“Are Tottenham my preferred opponent this weekend? Probably not but I am not sure anyone wants to play against us in the moment.”