German national and current Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in a post match interview following Liverpool’s 2-0 Champions League victory over Porto.
Klopp described the African Cup of Nations as a ‘Little Tournament’ and this has got many African managers and countries calling the Liverpool gaffer out.
Liverpool who is currently excelling in the English Premier league have got three of the best African players in Mohammed Salah, Sadio Mane and Nabby Keita playing for them. If some of the best African players are your top players who then do you describe their national tournament as little?
The latest addition to taking a swipe at the Liverpool gaffer is Senegal national coach Aliou Cissé.
Aliou Cissé in his submission stated,
“I run Senegal and my players play with Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. I respect Liverpool and I do not respect Klopp who continues to despise African football on every occasion.
He is in that position today because of the African footballers, without them he would have lost every final. Salah, Mane, as well as Keita saved him to win his first ever major European final, today he has the guts to say that the African Cup of Nations is a small tournament..
The African Cup of Nations will bring out stars of the highest caliber such as those who are currently helping him shine at Liverpool. The African Cup of Nations is just as good as the Euros.
I am glad Mane is still humble despite being under the rule of an arrogant man.”
Jurgen Klopp after his comment has come out to explain his words were taken out of context as he tries to explain himself saying,
“I didn’t mean it like that, come on. So I was not even close to it being the idea in my mind that I want to talk about the African Cup of Nations as a ‘little tournament’ or the continent of Africa as a little continent, not at all.
What I meant was, if you watch the whole press conference then you might have understood it the right way if you wanted to, because I said there are no international breaks until March now.
I said “oh there’s a little tournament in January” and I didn’t mean a little tournament, I was just saying it’s still a tournament, it’s ironic. It’s still a tournament, a big one. We lose our best players to that tournament.”
