You never know who you’ll see around the grounds of Major League Soccer.
Before attending Saturday's Hudson River Derby between the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC at Sports Illustrated Stadium, former Liverpool manager-turned Red Bull head of global soccer Jurgen Klopp toured RBNY’s new training facility in Morris Township, New Jersey.
The 2019 UEFA Champions League winner had plenty to say about the occasion and his perception of MLS.
“I'm 100% sure, in five years time, we will speak completely differently,” Klopp said of the league's rising global reputation. “I'm really sure it will grow and grow and grow.
“The kids coming up, starting playing soccer earlier, training, getting better. Obviously, the place where you can play and train getting better. Everywhere. I can tell you, the quality is really, really good.”
“I saw really, really good vibe in the whole building,” Klopp said. “First and second team together. Both training sessions were high, intense, full of joy. Everybody was positive about it."
As for the facility itself, Klopp remarked how it’s the stuff of dreams.
“Massively, massively impressed,” he explained. "This is outstanding. It's something you never really can dream of … this is a completely next-level. It's really cool. It's really well thought through. It's so many opportunities.”
Since signing on to be the head of soccer operations for Red Bull in 2024, Klopp now has skin in the game in one of MLS’ most storied rivalries, which ended in a 3-2 NYCFC win on Matchday 37.
Even with a fresh perspective after stepping away from the managerial chair, he isn’t spared from the emotional agony supporters go through on a high-stakes derby night.
“I realized, when you are in charge, that derbies are not great, not really, to enjoy,” Klopp admitted. “To be honest, it's for the supporters to enjoy. It's for them talking the day before the game, the day or the week before the game, the day after the game.
"And to be happy or to be not so happy, depends on the result, obviously."
