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Football

Jürgen Klopp turned down offer to coach Mexico’s national team

The German coach was the prime candidate to take the Mexico job in 2015 but at the time, his desire was to work at a Premier League club.

Estados UnidosUpdate:
Jürgen Klopp turned down offer to coach Mexico’s national team

In 2015, Jürgen Klopp decided to call time on his eight-year spell at Borussia Dortmund almost immediately, he was approached by the Mexican Football Federation and offered the chance to take the job of coaching Mexico’s national team. He turned the offer down. At the time, Guillermo Cantu was Sporting Director at the FMF and he revealed in a live chat on Instagram with TUDN that Klopp rejected the job because his heart was set on managing a club in the Premier League.

"Through a third party, I asked if he'd be interested in coaching the Mexican national team and received a reply: 'I appreciate it, many thanks, but I still have a lot to do in club football and I want to go to England,'" Cantu explained.

Shortly after that, Klopp received the offer he wanted, and reached an agreement with Liverpool to take over as manager in October 2015. In four and a half years, the German coach has made Liverpool world and European champions and is idolised at Anfield and revered in the rest of the continent.

Not long after Liverpool announced Klopp’s signing, Mexico appointed Juan Carlos Osorio to take over the national team. While the Colombian manager didn’t reach the main objective which was to get Mexico into the quarter finals at World Cup Russia, Cantu added that looking back, he has no regrets about appointing Osorio as head coach.