Toni Kroos speaks on Jurgen Klopp’s next destination – ‘It’s what we’ve wanted for many years’

Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos is rarely short of comment on the week’s major issues on his podcast ‘Einfach mal Luppen’, and the story dominating the German news cycle this week is the departure of Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp.

Last week he announced he would be leaving the Liverpool job at the end of the season, ending a nine-year run at Anfield. He has been linked to the Barcelona job, but Klopp stated that he would be taking a year-long sabbatical before considering another job.

Kroos made it clear that he held Klopp in the highest regard, noting that he was a legend in Liverpool, England and Germany at the same time.

“Congratulations to whomever is able to sign Klopp now,” Kroos said on his podcast Einfach Mal Luppen, as recorded by Marca.

“He deserves to make this decision alone, he is a very intelligent man who recognises what moments and timing mean. If he thinks now is the time, then simply: chapeau. As German football fans, we can only hope that at some point we can convince him to take up any sort of role in Germany. This is what we have been wanting for many, many years.”

Klopp has been linked to Real Madrid in the past two, but unless Carlo Ancelotti departs before next summer, then it seems highly unlikely that that would come to fruition. Not least with Kroos turning 35 next year, Kroos would likely be miss out on working under him. Perhaps the only route is via the German national team, where Kroos has been linked with a return.