Instead of celebrating after the victory over Porto, Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp sweated after the game at a press conference due to an argument with a journalist.
Namely, it all started from the previous press conference when the Liverpool coach said about the African Cup of Nations that it was a “small tournament”.
That angered the journalist who wanted to hear an additional explanation from the German coach.
– Hello Jürgen, during the press conference before the last league match, you deliberately called the African Cup of Nations a “small tournament”. I believe that your words are an insult to the players, fans, and even people who live on the continent, and you owe them an apology – the dissatisfied journalist began.
It goes without saying that Klopp was shocked.
– I didn’t mean it that way. I didn’t mean it that way, I don’t know why you understood it that way, honestly – the coach of the “reds” justified himself before the journalist interrupted him again:
– That’s what you said. I listened to the conference and you said that the African continent is “small”, that’s exactly what you said.
Then the German tried to explain what he really wanted to say.
– Come on, I didn’t mean it that way. What I said was nowhere near what I thought and what was in my head when I talked about the African Cup of Nations. I would never say that it is a “small tournament” or that the African continent is “small”, not at all. What I wanted to say, if you were watching the complete press conference, you would probably understand what I wanted, is to comment on the claim that there is no representative break until March.
However, the journalist was not completely satisfied with the answer, but asked Klopp to apologize.
– But you would not say something like that in Europe, you would never say “a small tournament in Europe” and that is why you should apologize.
In the end, Klopp tried to justify that his words were taken out of context and that English was not his mother tongue, which is why the mentioned mistake was made.
– Look, English is not my mother tongue, but if you want to misunderstand me, then you do it for everything I say. All I know is that I would never think the way you say I think. I don’t even understand why you thought something like that, honestly and it’s not right for me because I would never say something like that in that context. But that’s the way it is. I did not want to offend anyone, far from it, but you made the situation like that and that is not right at all – Klopp concluded.
Otherwise, the Liverpool coach will have many reasons to worry, since the African Cup of Nations will take away three standard football players – Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita.
