Jürgen Klopp touted as Benfica boss by club presidency candidate

A candidate in Benfica’s forthcoming presidential elections has said he plans to install Jürgen Klopp as manager of the Lisbon club should he be appointed.

Klopp called time on his Liverpool tenure at the end of last season after nine years in charge at Anfield, and has since taken on a role as Red Bull’s global head of soccer, essentially an advisory position across the Austrian energy drinks company’s portfolio of clubs.

The 58-year-old German has repeatedly insisted that he will not return to club management, be it with Red Bull Salzburg, New York Red Bulls, RB Leipzig or any other of the six sides in which the firm has a majority or minority stake. 

Earlier this year, Klopp also dismissed speculation that he might take over from Vincent Kompany at Bayern Munich, reiterating his stance that he is done with the round-the-clock pressures such a role requires.

‘There’s only one name in my head: Jürgen  Klopp’

Benfica presidential hopeful Cristóvão Carvalho has nonetheless outlined a plan to appoint Klopp, who won two Bundesliga titles with Borussia Dortmund and led Liverpool to a clean sweep of club trophies including the Premier League, Champions League and Club World Cup, when current head coach Bruno Lage completes his contract next summer. 

“With me, Bruno Lage doesn’t stay beyond his contract,” Carvalho told the Portuguese outlet Sic Noticias. “I need a world-class coach, one who has already won the Champions League and who wants to win a Champions League with Benfica. 

“There’s only one name in my head: Jürgen  Klopp. He even said that Benfica is a great club that he would like to coach one day. Someone who claims this has something more than other [candidates] to be at the club. 

“With today’s Benfica, it’s obvious we can’t win a Champions League. But I have a financial plan geared toward that goal. I can promise Benfica fans that, in four or five years, we’ll be playing in a Champions League final.”

Jürgen  Klopp: ‘Benfica is a massive club’

Klopp lavished praise on Benfica when Liverpool faced them in the Champions League quarter-finals three years ago, fondly recalling how he received the offer to take over at Anfield while staying in the Portuguese capital. 

“Lisbon, a great city,” enthused the German. “I spent my last week off on holiday there [during his post-Dortmund sabbatical], I got the call from [Fenway Sports Group president] Mike Gordon in Lisbon. 

“So that’s a nice memory as well; I was sitting in an outside coffee bar, I got the call, and we made the decision in Lisbon… I respect a lot what they are doing [at Benfica], it’s a massive club.”

Grandiose ambitions

Those comments and others like them clearly struck a chord with Carvalho, yet there is little to suggest Klopp would consider a move to Portugal. The lawyer’s grandiose pronouncements instead appear to be designed to counter the stated ambitions of rival presidential candidate João Noronha Lopes, a Portuguese businessman who has pledged to sign Bernardo Silva from Manchester City if elected.

Noronha Lopes has also talked up the possibility of installing Ruben Amorim, the Manchester United manager, in the Benfica dugout. Attended by close allies Pedro Ferreira and Nuno Gomes, the former Benfica and Blackburn Rovers striker who is a friend of Amorim’s, the Spanish businessman attended the Manchester derby on Sunday, barely a day after predicting that it was Amorim’s destiny to take over at the Estádio da Luz eventually.

“Ruben Amorim is the coach of Manchester United, I can’t answer [whether his friendship with Amorim might lead to the manager’s appointment at Benfica],” said Noronha Lopes, who will learn his fate when the elections are held on 25 October. “One thing I know, Ruben Amorim will be the coach of Benfica one day.”

It seems equally clear that Klopp will not be.