The club’s honorary president says he hopes to see the Borussia Dortmund boss stay in the Bundesliga – but not in the place of Pep Guardiola
Franz Beckenbauer has hailed the coaching skills of Jurgen Klopp but stressed Bayern Munich are not interested in appointing him.
Klopp announced this week that he will step down as head coach of Borussia Dortmund in the summer after seven years at the club, whom he guided to two Bundesliga titles, the DFB-Pokal and the final of the Champions League.
Beckenbauer hopes to see the 47-year-old stay in the German top flight once his time at Signal Iduna Park comes to an end but says the champions are not about to offer him Pep Guardiola’s post.
Speaking at an event to mark a new media deal between the club and MSN, Bayern’s honorary president said: “I hope he will stay in the Bundesliga.
“Everybody [will] ask… but not Bayern Munich, because we have an excellent coach with Guardiola. Everybody would be very happy to have the interest of Jurgen Klopp, to get him.
“I hope he takes his challenge in the Bundesliga because we need him – he is an excellent coach, an excellent guy, a very, very good character.”
Beckenbauer also said he understands Klopp’s decision to step down given Dortmund’s significant struggles on the pitch in 2014-15.
“First of all, I understand him personally because seven years, to be the coach of the same team, it is a long, long time,” said the 69-year-old.
“He has the same motivation but the players, they are just not into this like five years ago. The way they played this season he realised it’s very difficult to bring them back to the old performance. He said: ‘Okay, I did a lot in the last seven years but now it’s finished’.
“It was the same with me – I was coach of German national team for six years but then I realised they had no motivation any more and before anyone realised I was not motivated any more, I quit, I stopped. My decision. Same with Jurgen – he found out his job is done. Now he needs another challenge.”
