The German Football Association and Jürgen Klopp have a handshake deal. That’s according to Sky Germany, which reported Sunday that the 59-year-old manager agreed in principle to take over the national team and stay through the 2030 World Cup.
Final details are still being hammered out. Klopp’s exit from his current gig at Red Bull is expected to be wrapped up by the start of next week. The DFB hasn’t confirmed anything officially, but the timeline matches what multiple outlets have been piecing together for weeks.
Klopp replaces Julian Nagelsmann, who left after Germany’s stunning round-of-32 loss to Paraguay at the 2026 World Cup. That was a brutal exit for a program that expected to contend on home soil. Nagelsmann took over in 2023 with a reputation for tactical flexibility, but the Paraguay result was the kind of failure that forces a federation to rethink everything.
Why Klopp now
The DFB made it clear after Nagelsmann stepped down that Klopp was their top target. No real mystery there. Klopp has been linked to the Germany job for years. He’s the most successful German coach of his generation, even if he did most of his best work in England and Austria. He won the Champions League and Premier League with Liverpool, turned Borussia Dortmund into a title machine, and has a rare ability to get players to buy into a system emotionally and tactically.
But here’s the thing. Klopp has never managed a national team before. That’s a different rhythm. You don’t get to sign players or work with them every day. You get a few training camps a year and a tournament every two years. Some club coaches love that. Some hate it. Klopp has said in the past he isn’t sure he’d enjoy the reduced contact time with players. So this move says something about how he sees his next chapter.
He’s been at Red Bull since 2023, overseeing the company’s global soccer operations. That role kept him close to the game without the daily grind of club management. National team coaching is still a grind, just a different one. It’s a four-year commitment with a World Cup as the finish line. Klopp reportedly wanted a contract that runs through 2030, which means two World Cups if he sees it through.
The DFB wanted stability after Nagelsmann’s short tenure. They also wanted a personality who could rebuild the team’s identity after the 2026 disaster. Klopp is that guy if anyone is. He rebuilt Liverpool from a midtable club into a European power. He rebuilt Dortmund from financial ruin into a champion. The Germany job is different because the raw talent is usually elite. It’s more about getting the right players to play the right way under pressure.
No date has been set for an official announcement. But if the contract terms are as close as reports suggest, the DFB will want to get this done before the next international window. Germany has a Nations League match in September and no time to waste on a transition that’s already been messy enough.
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