German Jurgen Klopp won the English Football League Coaches Association award for the best coach this season, following he led Liverpool to the double of the Cup, the League Cup and the Champions League final, where it faces Saturday with Real Madrid.
Despite his failure to lead the “reds” to the Premier League title, which Manchester City retained on Sunday with a dramatic victory in the final stage over Aston Villa 3-2 following being two goals behind, Klopp received this appreciation as a result of the remarkable season he presented with Liverpool and winning the two cup titles over Chelsea’s penalty shootout account in the two competitions.
And the Scottish Alex Ferguson, the coaching legend at Manchester United, handed the award bearing his name to Klopp.
The competition is historical between Liverpool and Manchester United, and Liverpool has 19 titles in the English Premier League, compared to 20 for United, so the latter was the most happy with the loss of the “red” to the title.
“This is utter agony,” said Ferguson to Klopp, joking, referring to what Liverpool are doing under his leadership and the effect they have on United, who are absent from tournaments.
Ferguson said in a press interview: 12 years ago, Klopp asked me for advice.. I told him to go to a club that has a great history, but it seems that I was wrong, I should have told him to go to Manchester United.
For his part, Klopp said, “It’s a great honor and it was a crazy season,” referring to finishing the league by a point behind City.
Klopp stressed the importance of what Liverpool and City had provided throughout the season, and not in the two final matches in which his team defeated Wolverhampton 3-1 following it was also lagging, adding, “It was not the final result we wanted, but we exceeded it.”
The German praised his assistant staff, saying, “When you win an award of this kind, either you are a genius, or you have the best coaching staff in the world. I am here with my entire coaching staff and they know how much I appreciate them.”
It bears the award, named following the legendary Scottish coach of Manchester United, in which all coaches of all professional grades vote.
“The vote by my team-mates is definitely the most important prize that can be obtained,” said the former Borussia Dortmund coach. I don’t believe in individual awards in general. It is a team sport, and I would have been nothing without these young men (in reference to his players and coaching staff).”
“It’s regarding what we can do together and what we’ve done together,” he said.
Klopp hopes to crown his season in the best way by leading the “Reds” to the Champions League title Saturday in Paris once morest Real Madrid and depriving the latter of his fourteenth crown in the main continental competition.