The new Jurgen Klopp documentary offers insight into the former Liverpool boss from some of the people who knew him best – including one or two faces most might not be familiar with.
‘Doubters to Believers Liverpool FC: Klopp’s Era’ chronicles Klopp’s time in charge at Anfield, and in particular his final season at the club. The German of course transformed the Reds’ fortunes, bringing them back to summit of world soccer, and ending the long wait for a league title in the process.
The documentary features interviews with Klopp himself, some of Liverpool’s stars, and those who know the former Reds boss best, including close friend Campino.
The German music star – real name Andreas Frege – is introduced at the start of the second episode when Klopp is asked about his earliest memories of Liverpool. He responds by saying: “That’s not my story, that’s the story of a friend.”
Campino then explains how he first fell in love with Liverpool as a 10-year-old after seeing Kevin Keegan involved in a fist fight with Leeds United’s Johnny Giles during the 1974 FA Charity Shield. Since then, he has been a supporter of the Reds, and even texted Klopp after finding out that he was becoming the club’s manager in 2015.
Campino is best known back in Germany as the lead singer of punk rock band Die Toten Hosen, having founded the band alongside Michael Breitkopf, who he met at secondary school in Dusseldorf.
The 62-year-old was brought up bilingual by his English mother, while his grandfather was Labour politician John Edmondson Whittaker, who was a Member of Parliament for Heywood and Radcliffe in 1945.
As well as his music career, Campino has also performed as an actor on stage and screen, and has also worked as a journalist. Among some of the notable people he interviewed are former German chancellor Angela Merkel, Paul McCartney and The Clash’s Joe Strummer.
Campino and his fellow band members are fans of German side Fortuna Dusseldorf, and sponsored the team between 2001 and 2003. Campino though also follows Liverpool, which saw him become very close with Klopp during his time in charge of the Reds.
In fact, as Campino details in the new documentary, he was greeted by Klopp upon his return from the 2018 Champions League final, which Liverpool lost 3-1 to Real Madrid in Kyiv.
“It was right after the game, we went to the airport and flew back to Liverpool. It was the aeroplane with friends and family, and the team, they left a little earlier,” Campino explains in the documentary.
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“So when we landed in Liverpool, the door opened and there was Jurgen saying goodbye to all of us who came down the stairs from the aeroplane. That was amazing, and it was more like he was there for us than we were for him, you know? He tried to help us over our disappointment.
“It was a classic Jurgen moment. He is a caretaker through and through.”
After arriving back in Liverpool, Campino would head back to stay with Klopp and his family, and despite it being the early hours of the morning after an emotional defeat, the pair started partying.
“We drove home, it must have been four or five in the morning or so, and none of us could go to sleep, so I went down to the kitchen to get myself another beer. I was so wound up, I couldn’t sleep anyway,” Campino said.
“So there sat Jurgen having a beer and said ‘I can’t sleep also’, and then one after each other we all gathered in the kitchen again and sat there and drunk our sorrows away and we started having a careful laugh, and then it got louder, and then the atmosphere completely changed, and we were going crazy.
“We had a kind of ‘if you think we’re finished, we’re gonna prove it’s the other way around. This is just the beginning.’ And within a few hours after that defeat, that was amazing, and we recorded this ridiculous song.”
The song, which featured the lines ‘We saw the European Cup, Madrid had all the f—–g luck’ was captured on video as Klopp, Campino and Liverpool assistant Peter Krawietz sang along, with family members eventually joining in to sing it in German.
The moment perfectly captured Klopp’s never-say-die attitude that he instilled at Liverpool, with the Reds going on to make amends just a year later as they won their sixth European crown, beating Tottenham in Madrid.
