It looks like we won’t look forward to a German - German, Jurgen - Jurgen coaching battle in the next coming years when United States faces Mexico as the former Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp has turned down the opportunity to coach the Mexican National team.
The coach has stayed firm on his stance that he wants to take a yearlong sabbatical from coaching. Besides Mexico being interested, there’s also a rumor of Klopp taking over at Bayern Munich and a handful of English teams also interested in Klopp.
Klopp would have been the ideal coach in many ways for Mexico as he would have brought in a fresh new approach to Mexican soccer and would have had the time to instrument his unique “heavy metal” style of soccer. With the players Mexico possesses at the moment, Klopp’s style looked like it would fit perfectly. He likes a high pressing defense, and attacks in a way that has many players interchanging in the attack. It’s also a very direct style with the ball flying around from side to side and whipped around all over the place. With players like Andres Guardado, Jesus Corona, Hector Herrera and Giovanni Dos Santos this style would have been a tantalizing idea to see them play under.
Of course the process wouldn’t have been all roses as Klopp has a very rebel style to him and you could see him clashing with the higher ups of the Mexican Federation (FMF), who ask a lot out of their coach which isn’t always soccer related. Also he would have needed a translator in the early stages as he doesn’t know Spanish. Lastly, without having the players on a day in and day out bases, it might have been difficult to implement his system with the players.
If you’re a Mexican fan you should like the idea that Mexico did at least take a shot at going after Klopp and making a play for him to take over El Tri.
While Klopp has said no, Juan Carlos Osorio, the Colombian and current coach of Brazilian club San Paulo has indeed admitted that there is an offer from the FMF and it looks that he could be inching closer and closer to taking over the job as he hasn’t declined the chance at coaching El Tri. Osorio has previously coached at MLS sides New York Red Bulls and Chicago Fire, as well as Liga MX side Puebla in Mexico.