• Jurgen Klopp will oversee all of Red Bull's clubs which are scattered across three continents
  • The role was previously filled by former Man Utd manager, Ralf Rangnick
  • Bundesliga title challengers, RB Leipzig, are the most high profile of Klopp's new clubs

Halfway through his final season in charge of Liverpool, the grind of day-to-day management had clearly begun to take its toll on Jurgen Klopp.

"It's not to do with coaching any more," the German manager sighed. "It's just recovery and then meetings, that's how it is." Three weeks later, Klopp confirmed that he would step down as Liverpool boss at the end of the 2023/24 campaign. After a summer spent enjoying his longest break from management since taking over Mainz in 2001, Red Bull unveiled Klopp as their new 'Head of Global Soccer'.

Here's what that grand and vague title means for a former manager who has plenty more meetings to navigate when he takes on the role at the start of 2025.

Klopp's brief is broad but relatively straightforward. The former manager of Borussia Dortmund - a club which has routinely and vehemently protested Red Bull's investment throughout the world of football - will oversee every club under the energy drink's umbrella.

Red Bull's press release explained that Klopp "will not be involved in the clubs’ day-to-day operations, but will provide strategic vision, supporting individual sporting directors in advancing the Red Bull philosophy". The German's sphere of influence will also extend to scouting, player training and coaching development.

Ralf Rangnick was formerly Red Bull's global soccer head before he embarked upon a disastrous interim spell as Manchester United manager. The studious tactician first took on a sporting director role at RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg in 2012, installing a high-energy style of football with young players scouted from undervalued areas, particularly in Africa.

"The playing style should be highly recognisable," Rangnick told the Coaches' Voice, "so much so that, even on a bad day, you can still recognise the kind of football that the team wants to play."

This is not the first time that Klopp has followed in the footsteps of Rangnick. The "heavy metal" pressing which the former Liverpool boss has based his philosophy around was introduced to the German footballing public by Rangnick. The former Hoffenheim boss first came across the benefits of working against the ball when his sixth-tier side, FC Viktoria Backnang, played a friendly against Valeriy Lobanovskyi's Dynamo Kyiv in 1983. "A few minutes in," Rangnick recalled, "I had to stop and count their players. Something was wrong. Did they have 13 or 14 men on the pitch?"

Klopp had said that he was "running out of energy" when he left Liverpool and has come under criticism from fans who were taken aback by this unforeseen career move. The 57-year-old explained his decision: "By joining Red Bull at a global level, I want to develop, improve and support the incredible football talent that we have at our disposal."