The Failure Pledge

Football manager

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Jürgen Klopp

Jürgen Klopp as coach of Borussia Dortmund, August 2014.
Dortmund's season opening, August 2014 — the start of the season that had them in the relegation zone by its midway point.Photo by Tim.Reckmann, 2014. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What failed

Klopp spent eleven years at Mainz 05 in the German second division and never played a Bundesliga match; he is still the club's record appearance holder in that division. The closest he came was the final day of 1996-97, when a win at Wolfsburg would have taken the club up; he scored and Mainz lost 5-4. He became Mainz manager in February 2001 and missed promotion on the last day of 2002, when a draw at Union Berlin would have been enough, and again on the last day of 2003, by a single goal, after Eintracht Frankfurt scored twice in added time. He went up in 2004, came back down in 2007 finishing 16th, failed to go up again in 2008 and resigned. At Dortmund he won two league titles and a double, then lost the 2013 Champions League final to an 89th-minute goal, the 2014 DFB-Pokal final after extra time and the 2015 DFB-Pokal final in his last match in charge, having spent the winter of 2014-15 in the relegation zone with the previous season's runners-up. At Liverpool he lost the 2016 League Cup final on penalties, the 2016 Europa League final and the 2018 Champions League final. That was his sixth defeat in seven major finals.

What happened next

On 1 June 2019 Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the Champions League final in Madrid, Klopp's first trophy at the club and the club's sixth European Cup. On 25 June 2020 they clinched the Premier League with seven games left, Liverpool's first league title since 1989-90 and their first of the Premier League era, with a club-record 99 points. He added the EFL Cup and the FA Cup in 2022, both against Chelsea on penalties, and a second EFL Cup in 2024. He announced in January 2024 that he would leave Liverpool at the end of that season. In July 2026 the German Football Association appointed him head coach of the national team on a four-year contract starting 15 August 2026.

The point

He was losing finals in the same years he was winning leagues. Two Bundesliga titles and a domestic double came before the first final defeat. The DFL-Supercup cuts both ways and is worth stating in full rather than half: Dortmund lost it in 2011 and 2012, then won it in 2013 and 2014 — the 2013 win against the same Bayern side that had beaten them at Wembley two months earlier. Counting it breaks the run of six; it also adds two more defeats. The record is not a long dark stretch followed by a reward; it is twenty-three years in which the winning and the losing ran alongside each other. The flattest fact in it is the first one: 325 matches in the second division, and not one in the first.

The sequence

14 documented failures, shown with the successes in between. Every entry carries its own source — the wins are part of the record, and leaving them out is how these stories get distorted.

  1. 1997

    Mainz needed to win at Wolfsburg on the final day of 1996-97 to reach the Bundesliga. Klopp scored; Mainz lost 5-4 and stayed in the second division.

    failureThe Jürgen Klopp story (Bundesliga.com)

  2. 2001

    Klopp retired after 325 matches for Mainz in the second division, and not one in the Bundesliga.

    noteThe Jürgen Klopp story (Bundesliga.com)

  3. 2001

    Appointed Mainz manager on 27 February, his first job in management, with the club fighting relegation. He won six of his first seven games and finished 14th, safe with one game to spare.

    successJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  4. 2002

    Mainz missed promotion on the final day of 2001-02. A draw at Union Berlin would have been enough and the score was 1-1 after 82 minutes; two late Union goals ended it.

    failureThe Jürgen Klopp story (Bundesliga.com)

  5. 2003

    Mainz missed promotion on the final day for the second year running, this time by one goal, after Eintracht Frankfurt scored twice in added time.

    failureThe Jürgen Klopp story (Bundesliga.com)

  6. 2004

    At the third attempt, Mainz finished third and were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in the club's history.

    successJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  7. 2007

    Mainz were relegated after three seasons in the Bundesliga. Klopp was not sacked and chose to stay.

    failureJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  8. 2008

    Mainz were not promoted from the second division. Klopp resigned at the end of the 2007-08 season, seven years in charge.

    failureJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  9. 2011

    Dortmund won the Bundesliga on 30 April with two games to spare, the club's seventh league title and Klopp's first.

    successJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  10. 2011

    The DFL-Supercup, Dortmund against Schalke, went to penalties after a goalless ninety minutes. Schalke won it.

    failure2011 DFL-Supercup (Wikipedia)

  11. 2012

    Dortmund retained the league and beat Bayern Munich 5-2 in the DFB-Pokal final on 12 May for the club's first domestic double.

    successJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  12. 2012

    Dortmund lost the DFL-Supercup to Bayern Munich in August, three months after beating them in the cup final.

    failure2012 DFL-Supercup (Wikipedia)

  13. 2013

    Dortmund lost the Champions League final 2-1 to Bayern Munich at Wembley on 25 May, to a goal from Arjen Robben in the 89th minute.

    failure2013 UEFA Champions League final (Wikipedia)

  14. 2013

    Dortmund beat Bayern 4-2 in the DFL-Supercup on 27 July, two months after losing the Champions League final to the same side. Whether this breaks the losing run depends on the source: Klopp himself, and ESPN reporting him before the 2019 final, spoke of six finals lost in a row, while Wikipedia counts six defeats in seven major finals and leaves the Supercup out of the reckoning.

    disputed2013 DFL-Supercup (Wikipedia)

  15. 2014

    Dortmund lost the DFB-Pokal final 2-0 after extra time to Bayern Munich in Berlin on 17 May.

    failure2014 DFB-Pokal final (Wikipedia)

  16. 2015

    At the midway point of 2014-15 the previous season's runners-up were in the relegation zone, off the bottom on goal difference alone.

    failureWhy Borussia Dortmund's 2014-15 implosion under Jurgen Klopp should worry Liverpool supporters (Sky Sports)

  17. 2015

    Dortmund recovered to finish seventh and qualify for the Europa League. Klopp announced his own departure before the season ended; he was not sacked.

    noteWhy Borussia Dortmund's 2014-15 implosion under Jurgen Klopp should worry Liverpool supporters (Sky Sports)

  18. 2015

    Klopp's last match at Dortmund was the DFB-Pokal final on 30 May. Wolfsburg won 3-1, with all four goals scored in the first half.

    failure2015 DFB-Pokal final (Wikipedia)

  19. 2016

    Four months into the Liverpool job, Klopp lost the League Cup final to Manchester City at Wembley on 28 February, 3-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

    failure2016 Football League Cup final (Wikipedia)

  20. 2016

    Liverpool lost the Europa League final 3-1 to Sevilla, having scored first through Daniel Sturridge in the first half. Klopp's first season at the club ended with two final defeats.

    failureJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  21. 2018

    Liverpool lost the Champions League final 3-1 to Real Madrid in Kyiv. It was Klopp's sixth defeat in seven major finals.

    failureJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

  22. 2019

    Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the Champions League final in Madrid on 1 June, Klopp's first trophy at the club and Liverpool's sixth European Cup.

    success2019 UEFA Champions League final (Wikipedia)

  23. 2020

    Liverpool clinched the Premier League on 25 June with seven games to spare, the club's nineteenth league title, its first since 1989-90 and its first of the Premier League era.

    successJürgen Klopp (Wikipedia)

Sources

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