Jurgen Klopp, a Champions League winner with Liverpool among other things, said his greatest success as a coach was promotion to the Bundesliga with Mainz 05 in 2004.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said the greatest success of his career – which includes one Champions League title, two Bundesliga titles and one Premiership title – was winning promotion with Mainz 05 to the German top flight in 2004.

“The conditions were so bad that nobody thought it was possible. But we kept our nerve and succeeded. After that I won more important titles, but also because I had better teams at my disposal, better conditions, more money,” Klopp said during a visit to Mainz. “It’s not about how things look from the outside, it’s about how you feel,” Klopp added.

Klopp recalled that he had won promotion with players whose careers were all but over and who had been given a sort of second chance with him.

Mainz 05 was Klopp’s first team as coach. This was followed by Borussia Dortmund, with whom he won the Bundesliga in 2011 and in 2012, when he also won the DFB Pokal.

In 2013, he led Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League final, losing 2-1 to Bayern. In 2015, Klopp joined Liverpool, winning the Champions League in 2019, the Premier League in 2020 and the FA Cup in 2022.