Jurgen Klopp to leave Liverpool: Bombshell statement in full as summer Anfield exit confirmed

Liverpool fans have been left reeling from the bombshell news that manager Jurgen Klopp will be leaving Anfield this summer.

The long-serving Reds boss revealed in a shock announcement on Friday morning that stunned the football world that he would be departing Merseyside after almost nine years at the end of this current season, saying that he was "running out of energy" and could not "do the job again and again and again and again".

Klopp has become an iconic figure at Liverpool since being hired following a successful seven-year stint as Borussia Dortmund head coach to succeed the sacked Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, delivering six major trophies so far including a fairytale Premier League triumph in 2019/20 that finally ended the club's 30-year wait for a top-flight title.

Klopp also won Liverpool's sixth Champions League title in 2018-19 as well as reaching two other finals, plus lifted the FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Community Shield, Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup. He also took the Reds to the Europa League final in 2016.

Liverpool sit top of the Premier League at the time of Klopp's announcement with a five-point buffer to closest challengers Manchester City, who have a game in hand.

The Reds will also face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley next month and host Norwich in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday. They will also resume their Europa League campaign at the last-16 stage in March.

Here are Klopp's stunning announcement words in full...

“I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it," Klopp said in an interview with Liverpool's official social media channels.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.

“I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things. That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already.

“When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then anymore’ and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously start thinking about it.

“It didn’t start [then], but of course last season was kind of a super-difficult season and there were moments when at other clubs probably the decision would have been, ‘Come on, thank you very much for everything but probably we should split here, or end it here.’ That didn’t happen here, obviously.

“For me it was super, super, super-important that I can help to bring this team back onto the rails. It was all I was thinking about. When I realised pretty early that happened, it’s a really good team with massive potential and a super age group, super characters and all that, then I could start thinking about myself again and that was the outcome. It is not what I want to [do], it is just what I think is 100 per cent right.

“We will have a moment, maybe the last matchday here or somewhere else – I mean in other countries or other competitions. There’s enough time to do these kinds of things. Let’s now really go for it. The outside world want to use this decision, laugh about it, want to disturb us.

“We are Liverpool, we went through harder things together. And you went through harder things before me. Let’s make a strength of it. That would be really cool. Let’s squeeze everything out of this season and have another thing to smile about when we look back in the future.”