“I know how much the Red Bull idea is criticised by traditionalists, and I’m one of them too.”

Those were the words of Jurgen Klopp as recently as 2022, but now the former Liverpool manager has damaged his reputation back home, perhaps irreparably, by signing up as their new head of football.

Red Bull Content PoolKlopp shocked German football by returning with Leipzig[/caption]

Klopp and Red Bull announced the news just five months on from his Anfield departure, with the 57-year-old saying he ‘could not be more excited’ to take up the reins, which involves overseeing seven different clubs on four separate continents.

One of those teams will divide like no other though, and it’s Leipzig, RB Leipzig to be precise.

We have to be precise too, given the effort that went into getting those two letters in front of the team name – no they don’t stand for Red Bull, but instead ‘Rasenballsport’ or lawn ball sports, a made up word in an effort to contravene German Football Association rules around sponsorship.

Moves such as those are why Leipzig, only 15 years on from their foundation when they took over local side SSV Markranstadt, remain Germany’s most controversial football team.

Explaining the point in further detail, and why Klopp’s reputation will be in tatters for many, German football expert Constantin Eckner told talkSPORT: “Members of the media and fans are thinking that Jurgen Klopp has destroyed his legacy. 

“It might not be a hot topic in Britain but Red Bull when they came in they took over a sixth division club and financed Leipzig to go through the ranks and get to the Bundesliga. 

“Red Bull are accused of circumventing the 50+1 rule which is held in high regard in German football which is highly controversial. 

“He was the head coach of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund who have positioned themselves as the antithesis of clubs like Leipzig and Hoffenheim. 

“Especially Dortmund fans but a lot of football fans in general are not only annoyed, but somewhat angry.”

The Red Bull project reached new heights in 2022 when Leipzig won their first major trophy, the DFB Pokal, with numerous lower league opponents along the way refusing to use their branded logo on web and print content.

In May last year tens of thousands of Freiburg fans held up signs reading ‘no acceptance for RB’Getty

The traditionalists haven’t let up ever since either. Just last season newly-promoted Heidenheim got their opportunity to show their disgust in their first match against Leipzig.

The away end at the Voith-Arena was plastered in ‘football murderers!’ stickers and then moments before the match supporters had to cover their faces as butyric acid was dumped outside their stand producing a rancid smell of rotting dairy and fish.

Even more recently than that, Leipzig were left scrambling for local pre-season friendlies before a US tour, with FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt and SV Babelsberg fans successfully getting fixtures cancelled as the latter’s ultra group said: “The principles and structures underlying RB Leipzig’s actions threaten football as we know and love it.”

All in all, the fury around Leipzig isn’t subsiding, if anything it’s getting worse as the team progresses. 

Now under the stewardship of Klopp prodigy Marco Rose, the team have come off their first summer where they didn’t weaken their squad in the transfer market, and look like potential Bundesliga title contenders for the first time after holding onto elite youth talents Benjamin Sesko, Xavi Simons and Lois Openda.

Such performances have shone a spotlight onto the club, and now Klopp in particular, with the media joining supporters in their condemnation.

Leipzig are flying under Rose and Klopp’s impact could see them do the unthinkable and win the BundesligaGetty

Kicker chief reporter Oliver Hartman called the deal a ‘dagger in the heart for football romantics’ while his outlet ran a fan poll on the move with 74 per cent of voters condemning it.

Pundits from TV channel Sport1 said Klopp ‘destroyed his image with one step’ and that he ‘sold out on everything he stood for all these years’ while local Ruhr outlet WAZ titled their opinion piece ‘Klopp stands for everything that’s going wrong in football’.

Before all that, and perhaps not coincidentally, departing Dortmund CEO Hans Joachim Watzke immediately passed comment saying he wishes his old coach luck, maybe in an attempt to ward off criticism from his own fans.

But as it stands, it looks like his attempts may have failed, even with another friend in the media, Germany legend Lothar Matthaus, commenting: “The important thing is that he stays in football and can continue to give football a boost.”

Klopp was recently back at Dortmund for a long-overdue farewell game, but he may not be as well received next timeGetty

It’s not just his involvement at Leipzig that will cause Klopp problems back home either, it’s also their second-biggest side, Salzburg, as German football pundit and commentator Kevin Hatchard explained.

“I think this will be quite a devisive step,” he told talkSPORT. “While there are no doubt positives about Red Bull’s involvement in football in terms of youth development and investment, they are still seen as a negative force in German football and with other clubs as well. 

“You look at some fans of Salzburg, the old Salzburg, they had to go and form their own club because they were so furious with what happened, so we shouldn’t forget that, Red Bull buy clubs, they rebrand them, and you end up forgetting about what the club was before.”

There’s even an awkward link for Klopp in Austria too, with his former assistant at Liverpool, Pep Lijnders, now in the dugout and underperforming, perhaps leading to a tense reunion.

None of that will be as awkward as Klopp’s next meeting with the German media, though, and with stories already abundant about a get out clause to manage the national team, replacing Julian Nagelsmann may well be his only way to win back the hearts and minds of a country that has long considered him their greatest-ever export.