Sir Alex Ferguson made special gesture to Jurgen Klopp ahead of his final Liverpool game

Jurgen Klopp has described Sir Alex Ferguson’s gesture ahead of his final game as Liverpool manager as “outstanding” after the former Manchester United boss reached out.

In January, Klopp surprised the football world by announcing his decision to step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the 2023/24 season, citing “running out of energy.” During his tenure, Klopp has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Club World Cup.

On Sunday, after nine memorable years, Klopp will manage Liverpool at Anfield for the last time in a Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Reflecting on the upcoming game, Klopp called the past few days “the most intense” of his life.

“We don’t have to pretend it’s a normal week because it isn’t,” he said. “I’m a very pragmatic person. This is the last game of the season and after that, it’s a holiday. Yesterday [Thursday], the players said goodbye.

We had a barbecue here. It’s a lot. I have emotional moments of course. I don’t know how many shirts I signed! It’s all part of the thing. Saying goodbye is never nice but saying goodbye without feeling sad or hurt, that would have meant the time was not good. The time was great. It will be tough.”

Besides saying farewell to his players at the barbecue, Klopp also spent time with former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who requested a chance to meet him and personally bid him goodbye. Ferguson invited Klopp to dinner, and they had an “outstanding” evening together, according to Klopp.

Ferguson and Klopp have history. In 2022, Sir Alex joked it was “absolute agony” handing over the LMA Manager of the Year award to Klopp after Liverpool lifted the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. Speaking on stage at the event, Klopp expressed his honor in receiving the prestigious LMA award, saying, “This being voted for by my colleagues is obviously the most important prize you can get.

I don’t believe in individual prizes in football generally, it is a team sport and I would be nothing without these boys there. It is all about what we can do together and what we did together.”

Ferguson, who spent 26 trophy-laden years at Old Trafford between 1986 and 2013, joked, “I should have told him to go to Scunthorpe United,” moments later.

Klopp responded humorously, saying he “couldn’t understand anything he [Ferguson] said” at first but has improved through working with Andy Robertson and Kenny Dalglish.