Jurgen Klopp's next possible role is one Liverpool fans would never have considered

Pep Lijnders has hinted Jurgen Klopp may never return to football management after his sabbatical. His former Liverpool assistant wouldn’t be surprised if he embraces his new role in a life of leisure.

Klopp, who dedicated nearly nine years of his life to the Reds, will be enjoying an extended break with his wife Ulla. They’re set to move into their new £3.4million villa on the Spanish island of Majorca.

With Klopp only being aged 56, his return to football in some capacity is anticipated down the line. Managing his native Germany could be hard to resist, while it’s been claimed he could take a presidential role at Borussia Dortmund.

However, Lijnders, his trusted lieutenant at Anfield who has now taken charge of Red Bull Salzburg, alluded in an interview with The Athletic that Klopp might have had enough of the managerial grind altogether.

“In the life we lead as coaches, and I’ve lived it now for 22 years, nothing else counts apart from the next game,” he said. “You might have one hour of joy before you start thinking about the next game.

“Doing that for so many years at the level Jurgen has managed, you come to an age where you really want to wake up in the morning and just think, ‘What time shall I go to the bakery? Shall I take my bike or the car? What time shall I book that padel court for?’ Simple things.

“I don’t know if he will manage again but he will do a lot of good things for the world. There will be a lot of interest in him, and I know I’ll be getting sent a lot of pictures from his holidays.”

Klopp has been adamant about not calling time on his career just yet. Speaking to the press in March, he said: “Will I ever work again? Of course, I know myself, I cannot just sit around.

“I will find something else maybe to do. But I will not manage a club or a country at least for a year, that’s not possible, I cannot do that and I don’t want to. That’s all.”

He doubled down on this sentiment during his last press conference, albeit stressing his desire to avoid the cycle of constant comebacks into old age. “I will work,” Klopp declared. “I have just finished this job.”

“I don’t know exactly why nobody believes I will probably not be a manager again, but I understand because obviously it seems to be a drug. It looks like that as everybody comes back and everybody works until they are 70-something.

“I have always had the idea I won’t do that. Other people are smarter and do it in different ways, but I have to be all in. I have to be the spark, I have to be the energiser, I have to be all these kinds of things. And I am empty. That’s it.”