Soccer

Liverpool captures English Premier League title with manager Jurgen Klopp rooted in Christ

By Kevin Mercer Jun 26, 2020
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, center, embraces his players after a match in January. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)

It had been 30 long years since Liverpool last won a topflight championship. On Thursday, at long last, the team finally climbed back on top.

Liverpool was crowned as champions of the English Premier League after Chelsea defeated Manchester City, 2-1. Manchester City entered the match 21 points behind in the standings with seven matches to go, but their loss on Thursday sealed the championship for Liverpool.

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The soccer-crazed English city erupted in celebration as the club’s fans stormed the streets. After 30 years, Liverpool has finally added a 19th title to its name.

What’s more, the team did it in style, setting numerous records in the process. Liverpool’s seven-game cushion was the largest in the league’s history. Also, Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Wednesday pushed the team’s home winning streak to a record 23 matches and counting. Regardless of the last seven games, the team will go down as one of the best in Premier League history.

Many in Liverpool were worried that the team would be denied an opportunity to clinch the title when the league was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, Liverpool held a 25-point lead. Yet as conditions slowly improved throughout Europe, plans were put in place to resume play without fans on June 17.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he didn’t mind the unusual circumstances. The championship was sweeter than he imagined.

“I have no words. It’s unbelievable,” ESPN quoted Klopp as telling Sky Sports. “It’s much more than I ever thought, to become champions with this outstanding club is unbelievable.”

The title comes in Jurgen Klopp’s fifth year with Liverpool. Besides often being considered one of the best managers in the game today, Klopp is also a follower of Christ.

“There is nothing more important to me [than my faith],” Klopp told The Times in London in May. “That is why I cannot bear to lose it, and that is why I find I have no reason to fear.”

In August 2019, Klopp said in a video with RT News that Jesus Christ was the most important man the world has ever seen:

“In the end [of His life], He took all our sins on His head and let them nail Him to the cross. For me, as a Christian, that’s the most decisive thing that ever happened … because it changed everything,” Klopp said.

Later he added, “It’s the greatest act that was ever accomplished and there’s no way we could ever do it. And we don’t need to because someone else did it for us. That’s a huge, huge comfort.”

Klopp is not the only professing believer on Liverpool’s title-winning team. Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino was baptized in January with the help of fellow Brazilian Alisson Becker, Liverpool’s goalkeeper.

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