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Cristovao Carvalho, a candidate in the upcoming Benfica presidential elections, has made a bold promise to bring Jurgen Klopp on board as manager if he wins next month's vote.
Klopp, 58, hasn't been at the helm of a club since his departure from Liverpool following the 2023-24 season. The German has since taken up a new position away from the touchline as Red Bull's Global Head of Football, and has strongly suggested that his managerial days are behind him, despite being linked with various clubs over the past year.
Nonetheless, this hasn't deterred potential Benfica president Carvalho from setting his sights on the former Premier League and Champions League victor should he secure the backing of the Portuguese club's members. He's also set out ambitious plans for the future, aiming to reach the Champions League final within the next five years.
"With me, Bruno Lage [Benfica's current head coach] won't stay beyond his contract [which expires at the end of the season]," Carvalho declared during an interview with Portuguese media outlet Sic Noticias ahead of the presidential elections on 25 October.
"I need a world-class coach, one who has already won the Champions League and who wants to win a Champions League with Benfica. There's only one name in my head: Jurgen Klopp. He even said that Benfica is a great club that he would like to coach one day. Someone who says that has something more to be at the club than anyone else.
"With Benfica today, it's obvious we can't win a Champions League," Carvalho continued. "But I have a financial plan geared toward that goal. I can promise Benfica fans that, in four or five years, we'll be playing in a Champions League final."
Whilst Carvalho harbors ambitions of tempting Klopp to Benfica, such a move appears highly improbable given the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund manager's recent comments. As recently as June, he made it abundantly clear that he was relishing life outside of management and showed no signs of being eager to return to the touchline.
"I don't want that anymore," Klopp told Welt when questioned about rumors connecting him with the Bayern Munich position. "I have a job now that fulfills me and is also intense. I don't sleep longer in the mornings, nor do I go to bed later at night, but I can organize my work much better.
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"For example, my wife is totally happy about it because we can plan things much better that we couldn't before. It was never about doing nothing, but about doing something different.
"I have coached 1,081 games-not including friendly matches. If we count those from 23 years, maybe it's around 1,200. Then there were the press conferences and media appointments.
"I was always just reacting. And in Liverpool, the tasks as a manager were added on top. That was a lot, really a lot."
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can read the original story in the Mirror by clicking here.
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