NorwichCity

Enduring love for Klopp clear in voices and in tattoos as exit sinks in | Will Unwin

28-Jan-2024 18:16:59 | The Guardian

Jürgen Klopp raised a smile after You’ll Never Walk Alone with more fans than usual waiting for him in the players’ car park

“I feel the same way as when Bill Shankly left, I am devastated,” Ken Buckley, a Liverpool season-ticket holder for 50 years, says of Jürgen Klopp’s impending exit. “It is hard to take in, it really is. It is like losing a family member.”

Buckley is in front of a mural depicting Klopp lifting the Champions League, one of seven major honours won under the German. Fans flocked to have their photos taken in front of their hero, wanting to remember the impact he has made at the club. One pilgrim wears a “Thank you Klopp” hoodie, in homage. Where once Steve Gerrard was the face of the club, it is now Klopp who has become symbolic of everything it stands for, which explains the number of limbs exhibiting a tattoo of his face.