Jurgen Klopp targeted by Champions League club - and he's already made feelings clear

One of the candidates standing to become the next president of Benfica has vowed to make Jurgen Klopp the club's next manager if he is successful in next month's elections.

Klopp, 58, has not managed a club since leaving Liverpool at the end of the 2023-24 campaign . The German has since taken on a new role away from the dugout as Red Bull's Global Head of Soccer and has heavily implied that he is done with management amid links to different clubs over the past 12 months.

However, that hasn't stopped Cristovao Carvalho, a potential Benfica president, from setting his sights on the former Premier League and Champions League winner should he be voted into power by the Portuguese outfit. And he's also outlined grand plans for the future with the goal of reaching the Champions League final in the next five years.

“With me, Bruno Lage [Benfica's current head coach] won't stay beyond his contract [which expires at the end of the season],” explained Carvalho during an interview with Portuguese outlet Sic Noticias ahead of the presidential elections on 25 October.

“I need a world-class coach, one who has already won the Champions League and who wants to win a Champions League with Benfica. There's only one name in my head: Jurgen Klopp. He even said that Benfica is a great club that he would like to coach one day. Someone who says that has something more to be at the club than anyone else.”

“With Benfica today, it's obvious we can't win a Champions League,” Carvalho continued. “But I have a financial plan geared toward that goal. I can promise Benfica fans that, in four or five years, we'll be playing in a Champions League final.”

While Carvalho has designs on luring Klopp to Benfica, it seems unlikely that the former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund chief would consider such a move. He made it clear as recently as June that he was enjoying life away from management and didn't sound like he was in a rush to return to the dugout.

“I don’t want that anymore,” Klopp told Welt when he was asked about speculation linking him with the Bayern Munich job. “I have a job now that fulfills me and is also intense. I don’t sleep longer in the mornings, nor do I go to bed later at night, but I can organize my work much better.

“For example, my wife is totally happy about it because we can plan things much better that we couldn’t before. It was never about doing nothing, but about doing something different.

“I have coached 1,081 games—not including friendly matches. If we count those from 23 years, maybe it’s around 1,200. Then there were the press conferences and media appointments.

“I was always just reacting. And in Liverpool, the tasks as a manager were added on top. That was a lot, really a lot.”

Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.