Barcelona need Liverpool’s permission to move for Jurgen Klopp in the summer, with the German having promised to take a year’s sabbatical in return for ending his contract at Anfield a year early.
That’s according to Sport, who say Barcelona have a ‘great challenge’ to try and hire Klopp as their replacement for Xavi.
The newspaper explains that Barcelona are eyeing Klopp as their next manager after Xavi’s decision to step down at the end of the season.
Barcelona would love the German to replace him, indeed he is the ‘dream signing’, but they first need to convince him to change his mind, while Liverpool would also need to be ‘understanding’.
Thus, they would need to give their permission for any move to Barcelona, should President Joan Laporta be successful and use his ‘usual enthusiasm’ to convince Klopp to accept a proposal.
Klopp considers himself a man of his word and so at this moment in time it is certain he will not train a team next season unless Liverpool agree to it. The German wants to leave Anfield with a bang and not break the good relationship he’s built with the owners and the fans.
One thing in Barcelona’s favour is that Klopp loves Spain, indeed he owns a farm in Mallorca, and the idea of working in La Liga after spells in the Bundesliga and Premier League would be ‘attractive’.
Despite that, though, Laporta and director of football Deco ‘will have to insist strongly’ to make him change his mind and convince Liverpool to not put any objections in place. That’s seen as a ‘difficult mission but not impossible’.
