No speech at coaches congress from Klopp after Germany appointment

Jürgen Klopp will not hold the opening speech at an international coaches congress in the wake of his appointment as German national team coach.

Klopp, 59, apologised for the decision in a video message at the start of the three-day congress in Mainz on Monday which is to bring together around 1,400 trainers.

“I don’t want to make the headlines again right at the start, without ever having played with the team. That’s why I thought it made sense not to talk about what I had intended to talk about,” Klopp said.

“The topic would have been: becoming a manager isn’t difficult, but being one is all the more so.

“I would have talked about my career and how I coached – without knowing exactly how it all worked – to stay with the respective clubs for so long.

“If I imagine I’d have talked about that, it could well come back to haunt me over the next few days and weeks. Because now I’ve become a coach. That was hard enough. But now I also have to show that I can stay in the job. That’s what I want to focus on,” Klopp said.

The former Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool coach Klopp was named German national team coach on Friday on a contract until 2030.