Supporters of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund will be able to resonate with how their Liverpool counterparts will feel on Sunday after Jurgen Klopp takes charge of the Reds for the final time.
His managerial career began at the former in 2001, where in seven years with the club he got them promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time and even qualified them for Europe, departing in tears as a deified legend in 2008.
A Mainz supporter spoke to COPA90 about her memories of the German’s final match in charge of the Rhineland outfit, and what Reds fans can expect in the post-Klopp era.
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She recalled (via Anything Liverpool): “I remember it really hitting me on the bus to the last game of the season [that] this might be the final time he coaches Mainz 05. It’s impossible to put in words what he did for the club and the city.”
She continued:“Is there a life after Klopp? The poet Robert Frost said ‘One thing I have learned about life is that it goes on’. I think Klopp would be the first to wish that for a club he has stayed at. Liverpool will be fine, but never the same as before.”
We’re still trying to brace ourselves for the most emotional of farewells on Sunday evening, but not even four months’ notice from the 56-year-old seems time enough to prepare us for how hard the scenes after the Wolves match at Anfield are going to hit.
Jurgen will rightly get the most raucous of send-offs, but just as Liverpool continued to triumph after the departures of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, there should still be success after Klopp.
You can view the Mainz supporter’s words below in a video for COPA 90 (shared via @AnythingLFC_ on X):