After Xabi Alonso was fired, former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp rejected a transfer to Real Madrid, claiming that the club’s decision to let go of the Spaniard had “nothing to do with me.” Since leaving Liverpool in the summer of 2024, Klopp, 58, has not coached a football team. The German claimed he was “running out of energy” and wanted some time away from the dugout. He is presently the worldwide head of football for Red Bull. “I think the rumors have been circulating for some time now,” Klopp said to the Austrian broadcaster Servus TV when asked if his phone had been ringing following Alonso’s departure. I understand exactly what you’re asking, but it’s unrelated to me. ‘My phone did actually ring, but not from Madrid. There were, however, a few people who felt they needed to bring it up with me.   ‘In general, it’s a sign that not everything there is 100 per cent right when Xabi Alonso, who showed over two years in Leverkusen what an outstanding coaching talent he is, has to leave Real Madrid just half a year later.   ‘When you come in after a legend and an incredibly successful coach like Carlo Ancelotti, who had a very specific way of managing his teams, and then try to introduce new rules, that has now proven to be too difficult. I really feel sorry for him, because I consider him a great coach.’   Klopp was quick to emphasise that he was happy in his current circumstances, adding: ‘It has nothing to do with me and didn’t trigger anything in me either.   ‘The coaching market is being reshuffled, and it’s not a bad thing to experience all of this from an observer’s perspective and not think about what it mean mean for yourself, because you’re in the right place where you are.’   Real Madrid announced on Monday that Xabi Alonso has mutually agreed to step down from his role after less than eight months at the helm. Alvaro Arbeloa, who had been managing Real Madrid B for the first half of the 2025/26 season, was swiftly named as his successor.