Jurgen Klopp has confirmed he has joined the Common Goal charity initiative during his acceptance speech for FIFA’s The Best Coach of the Year award.
Klopp beat Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino to the award on Monday night, after inspiring Liverpool to their Champions League triumph in Madrid in June.
The Reds have stepped up significantly since Klopp’s appointment in 2015, and he is undoubtedly one of the greatest managers to ever take charge of the club, and one of the best in world football.
Speaking at the ceremony in Milan, the German issued thanks to the club, its owners, his players and his family, and announced he has joined Common Goal.
“What can I say? I have to say thank you to a lot of people!” he said.
“It’s quite heavy…”
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“I have to start at the beginning, with my family sitting at home. Nobody would have expected I stand here 10 years, five years, maybe even one year ago.
“I have to say thank you to my outstanding club, Liverpool FC. Who doesn’t love it has no heart.
“To the owners, they gave me an incredible team and Mike Gordon in particular.
“And I have to thank my team. As a coach you can only be as good as your team is. I’m really proud of being manager of such an incredible bunch of players.
“I don’t want to make it longer than it should be, but in the end I want to use this stage to say one thing.
“This today is an individual prize. I don’t 100 percent understand individual prizes but I get it, because I am here for a lot of people.
“But we are all on the really good side of life, obviously, that’s why we are here.
“So the past was great, the present is really good, the future will hopefully be good for us as well.
“But there are people out there that don’t have exactly the same situation.
“And I’m really proud and happy that I can announce that from today on I’m member of the Common Goal family.”
Common Goal is a charity co-founded by Juan Mata, which urges football players and coaches to donate at least one percent of their salary to causes around the world.
Klopp follows Liverpool under-23s midfielder Isaac Christie-Davies and Liverpool FC Women forward Christie Murray in supporting Common Goal.
