Jurgen Klopp’s new job, William Saliba transfer latest – exclusive Fabrizio Romano column | OneFootball

New job for Jurgen Klopp!

Jurgen Klopp is back in football, but not as a manager, with the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund boss confirmed as the new head of global soccer with the Red Bull Group. Obviously we know about RB Leipzig and Salzburg in Europe, but they have many clubs around the world, and Klopp will start his new role with them from January 2025.

So, what will Klopp do in this job? He will co-ordinate everything with the managers and directors of the Red Bull clubs, helping them develop strategies to develop players, help them to work with talents, and also to sign players for the future. Klopp will be a fundamental and crucial figure to drive the future of the Red Bull Group around the world.

The agreement was done in the last 24 hours, and it includes a kind of private clause for Klopp, in case he wants to become the new head coach of the German national team at any point. Of course it’s not guaranteed that he’ll want to take this job, and Julian Nagelsmann remains in charge for now, but if that changes there is a clause that could give him the opportunity to leave his role and become Germany manager.

Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is back in football (Photo by Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images)

What next for Manchester City after director departure?

Another big figure in world football who’s making a move is Txiki Begiristain at Manchester City. While he’s not at the same level as Klopp as he’s not been a manager, he’s been a superb director at Man City, one of the best directors in the history of the game.

Pep Guardiola is obviously the main man at City, but behind the scenes Begiristain is the man signing all the superstars – he’s made some fantastic signings during his time there, and he’s also very highly regarded for his work at Barcelona before that.

I’m told that he will now take a sabbatical, but his intention is not to retire. We’ll see how long his break will be, but his plan is to take his time and see what other opportunities there will be in the football world.

Meanwhile, it will be time for Manchester City to find a new director of football and my information is that the big favourite for the job is Hugo Viana of Sporting Lisbon. He’s a strong candidate and has very good chances to replace Begiristain at City. He’s done an excellent job in Portugal, signing players like Viktor Gyokeres and Ousmane Diomande, so he’s a very talented director.

I can confirm that contacts are already ongoing, so keep an eye on this one as it looks like Viana has a good chance of becoming a new key figure behind the scenes at Manchester City. I rate him really highly and so I’m not surprised to be told about him being favourite for the job. Txiki Begiristain is a world class director, one of the best in history, he made incredible things in Spain and then he built this City masterpiece with Pep and Ferran Soriano, so it’s a big blow for City, for sure, but I’m also sure they know how to replace him in the best way possible.

Some fans have also asked me what this all means for Guardiola’s future, but my information is that Begiristain leaving doesn’t mean that Guardiola is also leaving. The feeling inside City is that they are confident of keeping Guardiola at least for one more season – the final approval, the final decision will be from Pep himself, but my information remains that the change in director doesn’t mean that the manager will also be leaving.

Guardiola is taking his time to decide at this important point in City’s project, but the club are confident and optimistic about keeping their manager, with Begiristain’s future not changing that.

Clarification on two Arsenal exit rumours

A story that keeps coming up at the moment is William Saliba and a possible move away from Arsenal – in recent weeks we’ve heard a few times about Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, but I can honestly say I have no confirmation of any of this, including on the claim that Real Madrid contacted Saliba’s entourage.

I’m not aware of anything concrete at this stage – all I know is that Saliba is fully focused on Arsenal, while Arsenal obviously also consider Saliba as a key part of their project, nothing else.

Real Madrid are exploring the centre-backs market since the Leny Yoro case last summer, as they missed out on his signature to Manchester United, but at the moment that’s it; nothing else into those Saliba stories and I can guarantee he’s 100% focused on Arsenal now.

Some other Arsenal rumours have been circulating involving Jorginho. However, I can say that the situation is that Jorginho is only thinking about this season. It’s an important season for Arsenal, I don’t think all these links for Jorgi, Saliba etc are genuine and are good for the club… it’s only the beginning of October, the season started just 50 days ago.

Jorginho’s full focus is on present, on Arsenal, not on moving into coaching and not on making the move to Saudi.

Still nothing confirmed on Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United future

We’re hearing a lot of stories about Manchester United’s situation, but I can guarantee again that at the time of writing Erik ten Hag has still not received any communication from INEOS on his future, so he’s still preparing for upcoming games against Brentford and others – he’s fully focused on Manchester United.

We know United are discussing things internally, but at the moment there has been no communication from anyone at the club. United are having meetings, taking their time, so let’s keep following the situation and see what happens, but as of now there has been nothing communicated and so it remains business as usual, with Ten Hag preparing for the next games.

Martin Zubimendi responds to Manchester City links

Martin Zubimendi has spoken about his future in a press conference after fresh speculation – we know that he said no to Liverpool in the summer, and there’s now been talk of Manchester City looking at him to replace Rodri while he’s out injured.

At the moment, I’m not aware of any direct contacts over Zubimendi, and he’s said he’s still focused on Real Sociedad. Next summer we will see if that changes, it could be an interesting one, but for now there are no contacts or negotiations with Manchester City or anyone else, and he keeps repeating in public how happy he is at Real Sociedad.

In other news…

Victor Osimhen – There have been fresh reports about Victor Osimhen’s asking price dropping to €81m for January, but I don’t have any confirmation on this and I think in general Galatasaray should be more respected on the media. They paid important money for Osimhen on loan, it’s not even five or six games and there are already rumours about January and more. Nothing is ongoing now, for sure. In any case, there’s a new release clause into his contract if he ends up extending at Napoli as revealed one month ago so that’s the value for the future.

Randal Kolo Muani – I was surprised to see reports about PSG possibly being prepared to let Randal Kolo Muani leave this January. PSG only have Kolo Muani as a striker option right now as Goncalo Ramos is injured, so it would be crazy to discuss the exit of the only striker you have in your squad – there’s nothing into this one. If PSG wanted to sell Kolo Muani, they had offers last summer and they didn’t even consider that. Kolo Muani remains part of PSG project for this season, then next summer we will see.

Arda Guler – Despite latest rumours, no talks are taking place between Fenerbahce and Arda Guler. Also, Arda only wants to succeed at Real Madrid and he’s not considering loan proposals now. So there’s nothing into this, Real Madrid remain convinced he will find space to get more playing time in the next months as the season is still long.