Jurgen Klopp has been honoured as the FIFA Men’s Coach of the year in a awards ceremony in Milan on Monday night.
The German beat Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino for the deserved award which was voted on by national team managers, coaches, fans and journalists.
There was a initial 10 man shortlist and then narrowed down to the final three where Klopp came out on top.
The Reds manager produced an outstanding body of work over the past 12 months in leading the club to the Champions League title and to within an inch of ending the clubs’ 30 year wait for a league title.
Speaking upon accepting the award, Klopp had a whole list of people to thank.
The Official site reported Klopp as saying;
I have to start at the beginning with my family sitting at home and probably watching. It's great – nobody would have expected that I stand here 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, four years ago probably!
“I have to say thank you to my outstanding club, Liverpool FC – who doesn't love it has no heart! That's not true, you can love other clubs as well.
"To the owners, they gave me an incredible team, Mike Gordon in particular And I have to thank my team because as a coach, you can only be as good as your team is.
"And the potential of your team is one, what they make of it is the other.
"So I'm really proud to be the manager of such an incredible bunch of players.
"We are all on the really good side of life obviously, that's why we are here; legends – the past was great, the present is really good and the future hopefully will be good for us as well.
Klopp also paid tribute to the two men who he beat for the award.
“Mauricio, we won that game [the Champions League final] – that's why I'm here and not you.
“That's how football is, but we all know what an incredible job you did, what an incredible job Pep did, what so many coaches out there did.
Knowing what the man stands for, Klopp will put this honour to one side and focus on how he can make the club a even stronger force.
But it is just another indication that we have got one very special individual in charge and however he remains at the club, we will continue to enjoy the journey.
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