Jürgen Klopp announces shock Liverpool soccer club exit in blow for U.S. owners

Jürgen Klopp will unexpectedly step down as Liverpool soccer team manager at the end of this season, the club said Friday.

His successor in the job has yet to be announced.

The charismatic German coach joined Liverpool in 2015 and led the storied club to a European Champions League title in 2019 and an English Premier League title in 2020.

During this tenure, the team won the FA Cup, England’s premier knockout competition, along with the Carabao Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy,” the 56-year-old, who previously managed German giant Borussia Dortmund, said on Liverpool’s club website.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff, I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.”

Liverpool is owned by Fenway Sports Group, the American conglomerate founded by John Henry, which also has under its umbrella Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, the National Hockey League’s Pittsburgh Penguins and NASCAR’s RFK Racing.

Klopp replaced Brendan Rodgers at the helm in October 2015, when Liverpool was languishing in 10th place in the Premier League. In the following year, Klopp led the club to a fourth-place finish in his first full season in charge.

Since then, he has transformed the team into perennial title contenders, on numerous occasions narrowly losing the Premier League trophy to Manchester City. He has also become a cult icon in the team’s same-name home city and was awarded the Freedom of the City of Liverpool.

Liverpool is the most successful club in English soccer by number of awards, winning 68 trophies over its 132-year history.