Van Dijk Has Never Had Enough Rest Throughout His Football Career – Klopp

Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp has come out to blast the FIFA Club World Cup. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, elite players will experience more and more injuries during and after the tournament, and football will eventually be affected unless their burden is lessened.

Klopp added that NBA players also earn well and rest properly after a season, unlike Van Dijk who hasn’t had enough rest throughout his football career.

His words, “Julian touched on a few topics at one of his recent press conferences, saying that we need to develop more specifically. He was talking about full-backs and wingers. In the end, it’s all about the game and not the surrounding aspects—and that’s why the Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard. People who have never had anything to do with day-to-day business or who no longer have anything to do with it come up with something.

I understand those who say: ‘But the money you get for participating is insane.’ But it’s not for every club.

Last year it was the Copa and the European Championship, this year the Club World Cup, and next year the World Cup. That means no real recovery for the players involved, neither physically nor mentally. Of course, they all earn a lot of money. But let’s leave that aside for a moment. An NBA player who also earns really good money has four months off every year. Virgil van Dijk hasn’t even had that in his entire career. Tournaments like the Club World Cup cannot be held on the backs of the players. I don’t wish that on anyone, but I have a big fear.

“[I have a fear that] That players will suffer injuries they’ve never had before next season. If not in the next season, then it will happen at the World Cup or afterward. We constantly expect the lads to go into every game as if it were their last. We tell them that 70 or 75 times a year. But it can’t go on like this. We have to make sure they have breaks, because if they don’t get them, they won’t be able to deliver top performances in the long run – and if they can’t do that anymore, the entire product loses value for the sellers. I once had a pre-season of two and a half weeks in which all my players were at my disposal. Two and a half weeks – and then we played practically every three days for a year afterwards. That’s brutal.”

WOW.

Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has played its home games at Anfield since its formation.

Domestically, the club has won 19 league titles, eight FA Cups, a record nine League Cups and 16 FA Community Shields. In international competitions, the club has won six European Cups, three UEFA Cups, four UEFA Super Cups—all English records—and one FIFA Club World Cup.

The club established itself as a major force in domestic and European football in the 1970s and 1980s, when Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish, led the club to a combined 11 League titles and four European Cups. Liverpool won two further European Cups in 2005 and 2019 under the management of Rafael Benítez and Jürgen Klopp, respectively; the latter led Liverpool to a 19th league title in 2020, the club’s first during the Premier League era.

Anfield was built in 1884 on land adjacent to Stanley Park. Situated 2 miles (3 km) from Liverpool city centre, it was originally used by Everton before the club moved to Goodison Park after a dispute over rent with Anfield owner John Houlding. Left with an empty ground, Houlding founded Liverpool in 1892 and the club has played at Anfield ever since. The capacity of the stadium at the time was 20,000, although only 100 spectators attended Liverpool’s first match at Anfield.