The question of whether Jurgen Klopp – football idealist, fist-pumper extraordinaire, king of good stadium vibes – can work for a global corporate behemoth like Red Bull has become such an issue in Germany that when he was introduced on Tuesday as the ubiquitous fizzy beverage’s new high priest of soccer, his employer did not wait around for someone else to ask it.

In a giant conference centre by Salzburg’s main airport, surrounded by Red Bull F1 cars, stunt planes and various other objects dedicated to speed, stunts and one of the most intense marketing strategies for any brand ever – a Red Bull compère solemnly asked Red Bull’s head of global soccer whether this was the right thing to do. Klopp, 57, and looking slimmer than he did when he left Liverpool seven months ago, had many thoughts on the subject. But in essence he saw no problem at all.

The basis of his argument was that people deserved it. And by people he meant the 48,000 fans he had seen in RB Leipzig’s home stadium a few days earlier. Where else were the people of Saxony to watch Champions League football? Not only Leipzig but Salzburg too, the original Red Bull club who have won 14 Austrian league titles since their 2005 takeover.

Klopp thought the same of those other Red Bull clubs in New York; in Paris; in Saitama, in Japan; and in the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil. As for his own role in it all, he was to be the new figurehead for a power in world football that, for all its potency for shifting product, has lacked a famous face.

‘If you like, I am Doctor Football’

“A doctor doesn’t make a differentiation of ‘You come from this city so I don’t treat you’”, he said. “A lawyer doesn’t [represent people on that basis] either. If you like, I am Dr Football. I love helping wherever I can and I will give my all.”

Of course, Klopp has not always talked like this although he has, by his own admission, changed. In 2013, as Borussia Dortmund manager ahead of the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, he declared that Dortmund were “a club not a company”. Since then he has spent nine years in the Premier League with Liverpool where, he pointed out, he worked for wealthy American investors. Answering questions from German media he made the point that elsewhere in the world they do things differently.

“They [in England] have the same discussions there about ownership and about ticket prices [as in Germany],” he said. “You cannot come back and have the same view as everyone else who never saw another [type of] football. I respect other opinions, but in my opinion, people deserve the best possible.”

He was asked about much else over the course of an hour and a half – the future of Mohamed Salah, the potential for being handed two further Premier League titles were Manchester City to be stripped of theirs, and how much he enjoyed skiing. But at heart he was making no apologies for joining a group of clubs who attract great hostility from the majority fan-owned giants of German football.

Instead, he spoke approvingly of the loyalty of the employees of this €20 billion (£17 billion) Austrian-origin enterprise. Red Bull has 16,000 employees, a hand in more than 150 sporting entities, 800 athletes and now the world’s most famous German football manager.

‘I was brutally honest with myself at Liverpool’

Klopp has already embarked on a tour of his new empire, including the Salzburg and Leipzig clubs and Paris FC, where Red Bull have a stake. He will soon visit New York, Brazil and Japan. He was vague about what the job might entail but unequivocal that he was committed to it.

“I was brutally honest with myself at Liverpool,” he said of his January announcement that he was quitting. “I thought: ‘That’s it for me, I’m out’. I had a thousand competitive games on the sideline. I did it all. Thousands of press conferences. I don’t want to do that any more. But I didn’t want to stop working. I wanted a new start and this is the opportunity.”

Naturally, he was asked whether, if one of clubs in the Red Bull group needed a new coach, he would step in. Klopp said he would not. Had he negotiated with his new boss, Red Bull executive Oliver Mintzlaff, a get-out clause in the event the Germany national team job came up? Klopp said they had not even discussed it and that he hoped Julien Nagelsmann would stay for another 10 years. As for whether he left the Premier League’s best team of this season, Liverpool, too soon, Klopp said he had no regrets.

“[There is] 0.01 per cent that I think ‘Oh my god, I should still be there’” he said. “I am more than happy not to be there because they are doing so well. I wish them all the best and I watch as many games as I can. Even if you don’t support Liverpool you should watch them – it’s top, top football. They are maybe the best-balanced team in the world.”

Yet questions remain. How long will he be sustained by the challenge of getting a second-tier provincial Japanese team promoted? How long can the ultimate touchline showman pore over the details of a mid-table top-flight Brazilian club? Can he ever truly be interested in Major League Soccer?

“I want to figure out how Mr [Max] Verstappen has such high focus when he is driving at 300mph and going into a bend that is 180 degrees and performs under that pressure,” Klopp said of the other biggest name on the Red Bull roster. “Give me that information and I will try to translate it to football.”

A famous face fronting a shrewd multi-club operation

Of course, that sounds interesting but, as Red Bull knows better than anyone, it is less about feelings and more about the science. Red Bull’s advantageous market position has been using their multi-club group to scout, develop and trade some of the world’s best emerging talent. Mintzlaff even joked that Red Bull’s European clubs had often sold players to Liverpool.

That Klopp era was a success in no small part because of owner Fenway Sport Group’s decision to seize on a new recruitment model, shaped by data analysis, which took successes to a new level. Some of those key figures have returned to the club since Klopp departed.

One suspects that at Red Bull, like Liverpool, the key work behind the scenes is the laborious task of building good squads. At Liverpool they had a great front-of-house performer in Klopp. He cajoled, encouraged and united players and fanbase. He generated momentum. He made the match-day strategy work. Although he was not the expert in every part of the process. After all, this was the man who, instead of signing Salah in 2017, at the time preferred Julian Brandt.

Yet what Klopp seemed to be embracing now is a life away from the touchline. “Dr Football” is a beguiling notion but is he better in the background or at the forefront demanding performance and instilling confidence? He was at it again on Tuesday, handling the difficult questions about the corporate muscle of Red Bull, and much else with the usual mix of charm and steel.

When it comes to the complexities of managing a six-club group across four continents, his greatest strength is surely winning over a sceptical public.