Dutch journalist Hans Kraay Jr was not wrong to treat Jordan Henderson the way he did in a recent interview, and certainly didn’t require criticism from Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
That’s according to fellow journalist Sjoerd Mossou, who believes the Liverpool manager may have been wrong to call out Kraay Jr in his press conference this week.
Kraay Jr has found himself being criticised for an interview with Ajax’s Jordan Henderson after the clash against Fortuna Sittard last month.
The clip of him interviewing the former Liverpool manager went viral and saw the journalist being criticised for the manner in which he interviewed the midfielder.
He later apologised and admitted he was at fault but still saw himself being further criticised by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp this week in his pre-match press conference ahead of the clash with Atalanta.
Klopp was asked a question by a colleague of Kraay’s from ESPN and, realising the outlet, asked if he had conducted the interview with his former player.
The journalist, Milan van Dongen, then pointed out that Kraay Jr had publically apologised and aired his regrets, which saw the Liverpool manager change tact and become less defensive.
Mossou, though, was left unimpressed by his initial response and believes he was ‘pretending that something scandalous had happened’.
“Hans is of course a profession in his own right. You can become a reporter or a journalist, but you can never become Hans Kraay. There is only one of them,” he said.
“He cannot be compared to any journalist in the world, so you get these kinds of crazy conversations every now and then. But that is of course also what makes him funny.
“Abroad they are not used to it at all, they cannot deal with it at all and they find it very strange. You may wonder whether it is not a bit rude and whether it has to be so loud, I think he thought so too. It’s a style that I kind of like.
“We are not talking about an 18 or 19 year old being razed to the ground, that is a completely different story. Henderson is an established player, comes from the desert. Should take Ajax by the hand for very, very, very much money. Then you can ask a sharp question. We don’t all have to remain polite.”
