Jurgen Klopp apologizes to Bayern Munich’s Hansi Flick after being named ESPN’s Manager of the Year

Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp has been voted as Manager of the Year by ESPN after a successful Premier League campaign that brought the league title to Anfield for the first time in the club’s history.

Klopp edged Hansi Flick, Pep Guardiola, Gian Piero Gasperini, and Julian Nagelsmann – who are ranked 2^nd to 5^th respectively – to come out on top.

Klopp, however, appeared unsure about the results and mentioned that Hansi Flick, who landed the treble after an extraordinary season at Bayern Munich, deserved to win the award more than him.

Klopp said (via Express), “I deserve it more than Hansi Flick? No. What I can say I was not involved in the vote! I won the FIFA award last year pretty sure cause of Champions League.”

Klopp is not a big fan of the individual awards and expressed his opinion that it is not fair if the efforts of every single coaching staff are not equally appreciated.

“I don’t believe in these individual awards for coaches,” said Klopp. “The moment when someone starts to give awards to coaching staff, like a whole bunch of coaches, in my case we are six, then I will be the first to organize the party.”

Photo by LAURENCE GRIFFITHS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

“As long as I get these things alone, I am not very interested to be honest but, anyway, thank you very much for whoever voted for me and sorry Hansi you were probably the right one to get it,” added Klopp.

Both Klopp and Flick are nominated for this year’s The Best FIFA Men’s Coach, the winner of which will be announced on December 17^th.