Jurgen Klopp thanked by LeBron James as the Lakers star and Liverpool minority owner pays tribute after the coach’s shock decision to stand down: ‘You’ll never be forgotten’

LeBron James has paid tribute to Jurgen Klopp, with the Liverpool manager surprisingly announcing he will leave the Premier League team at the end of the season.

Lakers star James owns a minority stake in the team and took to X on Friday to join the millions of Liverpool fans paying tribute to Klopp.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING AND MORE!!’ James wrote. ‘You are one helluva manager and you’ll never be forgotten and more importantly YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE!! The Reds will miss you!!’

Klopp has stunned the world of sport with Friday’s bombshell announcement, bringing the curtain down on on his time at Liverpool after nine seasons.

‘I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it,’ Klopp began.

Lakers star LeBron James – a minority Liverpool shareholder – paid tribute to Klopp on X

‘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.

‘It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

‘After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.’

Klopp described how the idea had first come to him after a ‘super-difficult’ 2022-23 season which saw the Reds spend most of their campaign some way off the pack at the top of the table before clambering up to finish fifth.

But he underlined first that he was not stepping away for health reasons.

‘I am OK,’ Klopp said. ‘I am healthy, as much as you can [be] at my age. Little bits and bobs, stuff like that, but nothing anybody has to be concerned about, so that’s absolutely fine.

‘I told the club already in November,’ he admitted. ‘I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things.

‘That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already.

‘When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, “I am not sure I am here then anymore” and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously (started) thinking about it.’