A loose saying flies Jürgen Klopp (54) around the ears!
On Tuesday, at a press conference, the Liverpool coach described the Africa Cup of Nations (9 January to 6 February 2022) as a “small tournament”.
Much to the displeasure of a reporter!
Therefore, he involved Klopp in a discussion on Wednesday evening, indirectly accusing the Liverpool coach of racism!
The reporter in the video discussion round: “Hello Jürgen, at your last press conference you deliberately described the Africa Cup of Nations as a ‘small tournament’. I think it’s an insult to the players, an insult to the fans, an insult to the people on the continent. And I think you owe the continent an apology.”
Klopp replied frightened: “I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t know why you understand that, to be honest.”
But the journalist doesn’t let up: “That’s what you said. I listened to it and you said that the continent in Africa is small. That’s what you said.”
Klopp defends himself: “That’s not what I meant, come on. I didn’t even begin to think of talking about the African Cup of Nations as a small tournament or the continent of Africa as a small continent – not at all. If you had watched the entire press conference, you might have understood it correctly if you had wanted to.”
He explains: “I said there will be no international breaks until March. And then I remembered: ‘Oh, there’s another small tournament in January’. I didn’t think it was a small tournament. I just said that there was another tournament, it was meant ironically. It’s still a tournament, a big one. We are losing our best players through this tournament.”
Background: Liverpool have to place Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and Naby Keita for the tournament in Cameroon in the middle of the season. Of course, klopp doesn’t like that at all.
But the statements of the Liverpool coach do not convince the reporter. He continues: “But you wouldn’t say that in Europe. They wouldn’t say ‘small tournament in Europe’.”
Klopp is starting to get annoyed: “I’m not a native speaker, but if you want to misunderstand me, you can do that at any time. I know I would never think that way. I honestly don’t understand why you think that. That’s really not okay as I would never do that. It wasn’t my intention, but you made more of it. That’s not so cool to be 100 percent honest.”
The two will probably no longer be friends …
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