Jurgen Klopp clashed with a reporter who accused the Liverpool manager of referring to the Africa Cup of Nations as a ‘little tournament’.
Klopp was asked before Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday evening about the lack of international breaks until March but pointed out that some players will be playing at AFCON in January.
In his response, Klopp said: “No international break until March, I’ve heard that so often, but in January there’s a little tournament in Africa, I just want to say.”
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But after Liverpool’s win victory over Porto at Anfield, Klopp was asked to apologise to the people of Africa for his choice of words.
“It’s all good, I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t know why you understand it like that to be honest.
“I didn’t mean it like that, come on… so I was not even close to it being the idea in my mind that I want to talk about the AFCON as a ‘little tournament’ or about the continent of Africa as a ‘little continent’, not at all.
“What I meant was, if you watch the full press conference, then you might have understood it the right way if you wanted to because I said there are no international breaks until March now.
“I said, ‘oh, there’s a little tournament in January’ and I didn’t mean a ‘little’ tournament, I was just saying it’s still a tournament, it’s ironic. It’s still a tournament, a big one. We [will] lose our best players to that tournament.
“I am not a native speaker but if you want to understand me wrong, you can do that all the time.
“I really don’t… I know that I would never think like this. I don’t understand why you thought this to be honest, but that’s really not OK as I would never do that.
“But that is it now. It was not my intention but you made something [more] of it, so that is not so cool to be 100 per cent honest.”
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COMMENTS
Sincerely speaking what he did is none Sense because how will he called afcon as small tournament am very shock when I watch the press conference I warn kloope to come out apologize to African’s
LMAO the earliest we start giving power to own the better for us. These guys don’t fancy the continent no wonder Fifa has refused to map the competition into its Major Calendar. SMH!!!
He got busted and what he just blurted out is a representation of what most coaches of European clubs ides will wish they could voice out. They have no respect for us. Someone like Salah should be earning 300k a week. Tell my why Pogba earns almost double of what Salah gets paid???
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
klopp was an idiot. his home country of Germany have used African born players in the National teams and still using more. he is a fool!!
Totally out of order
Africa should start playing AFCON in June or should continue to receive insults because Clubs are paying their bills.
Of course he meant what he said.
He just got caught out.
This tells us what most of them thinks of Africa.
Just as I have said to some friends, some of this ppl in high positions within the govt abroad like house of parliament are racist too behind closed doors.
They are only caught out in situations like this.
His apology won’t mean anything because it won’t change what he has carried in mind for years.
There’s a good reason European coaches and teams detest the timing of African Nations Cup, being a “little” tournament is totally not it.
I’m not happy with the comments of the Liverpool coach by saying a little tournament, so Africa is a little country a word is like bullet n it can kill
“A word is like a bullet n it can kill” quote of the year. Guys, can we please be more carefcareful how we “shoot” ourselves with words on this forum.
Careful**
People don’t known that whites are racist by nature no matter how educated they may appear… being closet racist is their natural default… They try to hide it because of public image these days but once in a while they show themselves in the most subtle way… why not just say “there is this tournament in Africa?” white select the adjective “little”? They will stop African players attending it all together if they can…