Klopp left Anfield after nine years at the end of the 2023/24 season having explained when he announced his decision earlier in the campaign that he was “running out of energy”.
When asked if he would ever return, Klopp said on the Diary of a CEO podcast: “I said I will never coach a different team in England so that means, if [I did return], then it’s Liverpool.
“So, yeah, theoretically it is possible.”
Klopp took on his first role after leaving Liverpool when he was appointed global head of soccer at Red Bull, a position he officially started in January this year.
When asked what it would take for him to want to return to Liverpool, Klopp said: “I don’t even know exactly. I love what I do now. I don’t miss coaching. I don’t. I do coach but it’s just different, it’s not players.
“I don’t miss it. I don’t miss standing in the rain for two-and-a-half or three hours. I also don’t miss going to press conferences three times a week.
“Having 10 or 12 interviews a week, I don’t miss that. I don’t. I don’t miss being in the dressing room. I coached around 1,080 games so I was in the dressing room very, very often.
“I don’t want to die in the dressing room. It’s these kind of things. I’m 58. From your perspective that might be old, but from other perspectives, it’s not that old.
“That means I could make a decision in a few years. I don’t know. Do I have to make a decision today? I will not coach again, but thank God I do not have to do that, I can just see what the future brings.”
Klopp also revealed he turned down the Manchester United job in 2013 having decided the project was “not for me” after he was told things during discussions that he “didn’t like”.
“Yes, I spoke to them [Manchester United],” he explained.
“In the year when Sir Alex Ferguson retired they spoke to me. Of course they were interested.
“At one point. At that time I would have been interested. I was young, I had a sensational team at Dortmund, my God. They probably thought ‘what is he doing there?’
“They tried. It was the wrong time, wrong moment. I had a contract at Dortmund and wouldn’t have left, not really for nobody at that time.
“There are some reasons [why he didn’t take the job]. The people in that conversation told me [things] which I didn’t like.
“United was that big – ‘we get all the players we want. We get him, we get him, we get him, we get him’, and I was sitting there … It was not my project.
“It was the wrong time but on top of that it was not my project. I didn’t want to bring back, I don’t know, Pogba.
“Paul is a sensational player, my God, but these things don’t work usually. Or Cristiano, my God, we all know together with Messi he is the best player in the world, but bringing back never helps.
“At that time in 2013, it was obviously not about Cristiano maybe about Paul, I’m not even sure, [I don’t] get the numbers [dates] together, but the idea is we bring the best players together and let’s go.”
Klopp went on to speak about Diogo Jota, who died alongside his brother Andre Silva in a car crash in July, aged just 28.
“Nobody came to me and told me ‘Come on, let’s have a look at Diogo Jota’. I saw him and I said ‘Please, give me more material, I have to see him’. He excelled all the expectations,” said Klopp.
“I cannot imagine right now the dressing room without him being there. That’s so hard. I still cannot speak properly about it.
“I got a message in the morning, ‘Boss, I have bad news’. Then I got a message from a friend from Liverpool and… I couldn’t believe it. It was just not possible, I heard it and I know what it means, but I couldn’t believe it.
“I know exactly where I was. I know exactly how long I sat there without speaking a word. It is a family member, it’s exactly like that.
“Everybody wanted this boy to play the next 10 years at Liverpool. All-around player, all positions, can play football smart. A very special young man, I have to say.
“Now, as a club, take all the emotional stuff out and think ‘How do we replace him?’ And you have to think about that. Wow, that’s difficult. Impossible, I would say.
“Today, if we talk about the transfer window of Liverpool, that would have looked completely different [without Jota’s passing]. You have to sort the things you didn’t ever expect to. And now we judge a transfer window where they buy the players. That was not the plan, I’m pretty sure.”
