New York, June 30 (IANS) Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has appeared to rule himself out of replacing Julian Nagelsmann as Germany national team coach in the wake of their shock World Cup Round-of-32 exit after a penalty shootout defeat to Paraguay on Monday night.
Nagelsmann has said he wants to carry on as coach, but there is no doubt that 59-year-old Klopp would be a popular choice to revive the fortunes of a team that went out in the group stage at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and has once again disappointed this summer.
Klopp is currently working as Red Bull's head of global soccer as well as a TV pundit for Magenta TV, where he was asked if he would consider the job, reports Xinhua.
"I haven't thought about that yet. I've often been in that situation myself as a coach, where a big dream has been shattered," answered Klopp. "I understand that when people talk about the national coach, my name is mentioned. But it's not the right moment to talk about it, especially not with me."
"I have a job that I really enjoy, and as far as I know, it's not a part-time job. The fact is, Germany was eliminated today, and this is not the moment for me to think about Jurgen Klopp's future," he continued.
Before the drama of Monday night in Boston, Germany could boast a proud World Cup record of never having lost a penalty shootout, making its exit to Paraguay especially significant.
The Germans had won all four World Cup penalty shootouts in which they had been involved, showing such clinical efficiency that, until Monday, the only German to miss a penalty in a World Cup shootout was Uli Stielike in the 1982 semifinal against France.
All of that changed on a hot, humid evening in Boston when Germany discovered the pain of a World Cup exit in the cruelest way possible.
Kai Havertz, Nick Woltemade, and Jonathan Tah all missed their penalties on Monday night as Germany crashed out of the competition to a Paraguay team it had dominated for much of the game.
Havertz deserves some credit for stepping up to take the first penalty of the shootout after he had earlier failed to score a penalty in the 7-1 group-stage win over Curaçao, but his miss allowed Mauricio to give Paraguay an early advantage.
--IANS
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