Jurgen Klopp's 'extreme' Liverpool rivalry compared to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
Premier League legend Alan Shearer believes Liverpool and Manchester City managers Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have pushed each other off the pitch like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo did on the pitch.
Klopp arrived in the English top flight in 2015 and was followed by Guardiola a year later. The duo were already well acquainted from their time in the Bundesliga managing Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich respectively, and continued their rivalry in the Premier League.
Over nearly a decade, Klopp and Guardiola have regularly battled it out at the top of the division. Both have enjoyed success and each has won the Premier League, Champions League, Club World Cup, FA Cup and League Cup during their time in England.
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And according to Shearer, speaking on a special edition of The Rest is Football podcast, the rivalry is comparable to Messi and Ronaldo. He explained: "We have kept on saying over the years how Messi and Ronaldo have pushed each other, Jurgen and Pep have done the same in the world of management.
"They’ve pushed each other to the extreme where one has won one trophy and the other has come back and won that. They’ve gone head-to-head and pushed each other along in terms of greatness for their particular football clubs."
Unless the two clubs are to meet in a latter round of the FA Cup, Klopp and Guardiola will meet just once more on the pitch before the German head coach departs. That comes on March 9, when City travel to Anfield in the Premier League.
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