The most emblematic sentence about this situation has been written by the journalist Günter Klein, who manifested the common thought in Germany now: "Klopp is as fake as his teeth." Other German media also went against Jurgen Klopp's move, arguing that he should not have taken this offer: it is not coherent with his career and what his beliefs were supposed to be. Especially Christian Falk, who is the head of football at Bild, one of the major newspapers, criticized the ex head of Liverpool, affirming that is tough to accept Klopp’s new role, particularly from Borussia Dortmund fans’ point of view.
The controversy lies in how Red Bull's company presence is perceived in Bundesliga, in regard to the words said by Jurgen in the past; defending a certain idea of football. In fact, Red Bull Leipzig has always represented the purely economic aspect of this game, and the history of the team speaks for itself. Originally the club was called “SSV Markranstadt” and it was in the fifth tier of German football; it was just one of the provincial teams, without any particular ambitions, perfectly aware of its condition. Then Red Bull came along and they decided to invest on this club: they changed its name in “Red Bull Leipzig” and the team started to achieve more and more successes until it reached the participation in Bundesliga and Champions League.
On the other side, Klopp put himself in charge of the romanticism in football. For instance, in 2017 he affirmed: "I'm a football romantic and I like tradition in football and all that stuff”, that is evidently the opposite pole of Red Bull Leipzig's recent history. As a consequence, the decision of becoming part of this company, which was accused of using the club as a marketing vehicle, is deeply controversial to the point of stunned reactions in Germany.
Borussia Dortmund fans especially, consider him as the one who made their club so glorious, they took the issue personally and they started a big discussion: “has he sold his soul?" In the meanwhile Klopp himself, through his Instagram profile, explained his move and his strong will of coming back to the football world. The certainty is that he remains an icon in Germany, praised for his character and attitude, even if this latest news could crack the perception of him in the collective imagination. Will he never be forgiven for such a controversial decision?
