The Beginning
It’s almost inconceivable, and perhaps even downright ludicruous, to imagine that when one lone individual embarked on that fateful journey on the road to London only a few years ago, it would lead to an epochal turn of events four years later for one of the most highly respected clubs in English football history. He had least expected that his visit to Tottenham for his encounter with them as the first game under his charge as the manager of The Reds would be the starting point of a journey that would one day rewrite the history books in European football.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool only managed an unexciting 0-0 draw that day against Spurs and he was happy to take it for what it was. After all it was no big shakes for his first game with his new team. Little did he realise that all this would come a full circle four years later with totally different consequences and momentous bearing for him and his bold and merry men of Liverpool.
Last weekend Klopp again travelled the same route to Tottenham, but this time it was as the highly-acclaimed manager of the ‘Champions elect’ Liverpool team. A team that ranks as amongst the best in the history of the club. A far cry from his first trip where the majority of the key players he had inherited then were sidelined that day due to injury.
However, Klopp was not to be denied his victory this time around. Not only did they record a well-deserved, hard-fought 1-0 victory against a voracious. feisty Jose Mourinho side that just as easily could have turned the tables against Klopp’s men. After all, the Argentine had always been known for his craftiness and carefully-concealed guiles in game strategy. Someone who Klopp himself considers a ‘world-class manager’.
Klopp’s Liverpool are now destined for certain Premier League glory after an arduous, excruciating 30-year wait. The recipients of the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar, being runners-up thrice in the past, the Reds triumphed over Flamengo 1-0 and won their first FIFA Club World Cup. This triumph makes them the first English team securing the international treble honours of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. Quite an accomplishment, judging by any and all standards.
No stranger to the European battlefields, Klopp led the Liverpool charge to the finals of that season’s EFL Cup and UEFA Europa League right after he replaced Brendan Rodgers as the manager of the Reds in 2015. They lost both but that didn’t stop them from redoubling their efforts as they fought their way through to the 2018 and 2019 UEFA Champions League finals, with victory in the latter for his first European title.
And that’s only the start of his long list of conquests to follow.