Jurgen Klopp will return to the sidelines as a pundit for the 2026 World Cup, teasing fans about a comeback while confirming his new broadcasting role.
Klopp has always had a flair for timing. Even in retirement or whatever version of semi-retirement he’s currently living the former Liverpool manager has shown a knack for re-entering the spotlight precisely when intrigue begins to fade.
This week, he did so again.
In a teasing announcement delivered with the familiar mix of warmth, humour and theatrical self-awareness, Klopp confirmed that he will return to the sidelines next summer. Not as a coach, but as a pundit for a German streaming platform covering the 2026 World Cup in North America.
The 58-year-old, who walked away from Liverpool in the summer of 2024 insisting his energy for frontline management had drained, has publicly maintained that coaching remains off the table. Yet the manner of his announcement and the playful choice of words did little to calm speculation about what the future may still hold.
The reveal arrived via a video posted to Instagram, the sort of stylised, tongue-in-cheek delivery Klopp has increasingly embraced since stepping away from the dugout.
“Many of you have always known better,” he said in the clip.
“But I truly couldn’t envision it for myself. Going back to the sideline? I don’t miss anything. This is what I always thought. But now it is tingling again. Grass underneath my feet. The heated atmosphere in the stadium. And I want to be really close again.”
He then turns to the camera, addressing the presenter he’ll be working with.
“Hi Johannes. I’m in! See you on June 11 in Mexico! Cool sentence. Except for Indiana Jones, probably nobody can say it.”
If the delivery was light-hearted, the subtext was more intriguing. Klopp knows exactly how that language will land especially on Merseyside, where emotional attachment to the man who ended Liverpool’s 30-year title wait still burns fiercely.
Even the caption accompanying the video nudged the conversation along another notch:
“Grass underfoot, stadium atmosphere, very close!”
Klopp’s new role will see him serve as a TV expert for a paid German broadcaster throughout the month-long tournament. He will be joined by Thomas Müller, also stepping into punditry as his own playing career winds down.
It marks a continuation of Klopp’s post-Liverpool shift into strategic rather than hands-on football work. In January 2025, he took up a senior advisory role within the Red Bull football group, becoming Head of Global Football and overseeing development across RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg, New York Red Bulls and Paris FC.
It was a move that allowed Klopp to remain connected to the sport while avoiding the intensity of day-to-day management a balance he has sought since declaring himself “empty” in his final months at Liverpool.
For German audiences, Klopp’s voice on World Cup coverage will be a familiar throwback. Two decades ago, long before Dortmund’s title charges or Liverpool’s era-defining triumphs, the then-Mainz head coach emerged as one of the most compelling tactical analysts on German TV.
Working for ZDF during the 2006 World Cup, he introduced a more modern, interactive style of explaining the game, using a touchscreen to highlight patterns, structural issues and small details other pundits routinely missed.
His contribution was credited with redefining football analysis on German television and even helped the broadcaster win a Deutscher Fernsehpreis that year.
He reprised the role for the 2008 European Championship and again with RTL during the 2010 World Cup, before his coaching career skyrocketed and made such media ventures impossible.
Next summer’s tournament will be his first time back in that world since then.
Publicly, Klopp continues to insist he has no desire to return to management. Privately, those close to him have always said the same: he will not rush into anything, emotionally or professionally.
