Scolari praises 'extraordinary' Klopp

ByStephan Uersfeld ESPN logo
Sunday, June 8, 2014

Borussia Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp has been hailed as "an extraordinary coach" by Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.

In an interview with the Rheinische Post, Scolari also named Germany as one of the main contenders to win the World Cup this summer.

But it was Klopp, a two-time Bundesliga winner and Champions League finalist, that Scolari reserved special praise for, claiming he would like to watch Dortmund train in order to observe his leadership qualities up close.

He said: "I think Juergen Klopp is extraordinary, just wonderful. How he acts on the sidelines, lives his emotions.

"I'd love to sit and watch Borussia Dortmund in training for a week, to find out how he leads a team, how he connects with the players. He is an extraordinary coach with a sense for team building and leading a team."

Klopp is under contract at Dortmund until 2018, and has, so far, not been interested to listen to offers from other clubs.

The former Mainz coach believes he has a project to finish. There have been suggestions, particularly in the media outside of Germany, that Klopp could be frustrated by the lack of title opportunities for Dortmund, with Bayern Munich dominating the German Bundesliga over the past two seasons.

BVB have also lost at least one key player over the past couple of seasons, the latest being Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski, who will reunited with his former BVB teammate Mario Goetze at Bayern Munich in the new season.

But, according to media reports in Germany, Borussia Dortmund could edge closer to Bayern financially in the next couple of weeks.

The Deutsche Bank is currently considering some sort of partnership with Dortmund, the only German club to be listed on the stock market.

The magazine "Bilanz" reported that the German bank is interested in buying 10 percent of the Dortmund stock.

The plan outlined by the paper is to develop a financial power to become a long-term competitor to Bayern by an increase in share capital.

Both Deutsche Bank and Dortmund refused to comment on the rumours on Thursday.

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