Jürgen Klopp has reacted with disgust to a social media debate questioning whether the Germany team he is in the process of forming are “white enough”. Speaking at a press conference, the manager dismissed the discussion as “complete nonsense” and said there was no reason to give room to “such people and their utterances”.
Asked to respond to claims that the national team were “not German enough” or “not white enough”, Klopp was blunt. “There is absolutely no reason to pay attention to these people. You won’t get my thoughts on this. I have little time in everyday life for idiocy – and even less on social media,” he said. He added: “The great crux of our lives is that everyone is allowed to express their opinion … it’s insane when something like that exists.”
Klopp argued that sport offered a better model for mutual respect. He said watching sportspeople interact with each other was proof that respect was still possible, and that the world could learn from a sports changing room, where “everyone is respected based on the facts and not discredited based on false opinions. Full stop.”
The debate has followed Germany’s 1-0 defeat by Greece last Sunday in the Nations League, which was the first time Greece had beaten Germany. The result prompted a barrage of racist and generally offensive commentaries on social media. The reaction also reflects utterances from MPs of the far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the largest opposition party in the Bundestag, who have repeatedly criticised the diversity and ethnic makeup of the national team, often using derogatory terms such as a “politically correct mercenary force”.
Klopp, who took over as Germany manager in the summer, has attracted huge attention with his plans for the team. He said the players he had gathered at the national team camp, including several players with a migrant background, “could not be better united than they are”. Klopp has a four-year contract running until the end of the 2030 World Cup. He was speaking before Germany’s Nations League match against Serbia on Thursday evening.