Benfica’s presidential candidate promises that Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp once said he wanted to “coach Benfica” and would “persuade” him to become a manager if he was selected.
Klopp says he retired from management after leaving Liverpool at the end of 2023/24. He is currently head of Red Bull’s global football.
Nevertheless, the 58-year-old is constantly linked to top jobs, including the German national team.
Something very special is needed to pull Klopp away from retirement and try to win the votes to become Benfica’s new president, Wristovao Carvalho says he can persuade Liverpool legends to become manager.
Jose Mourinho was confirmed as the club’s new manager on Thursday after Bruno Reiji was fired, but there is a clause in which the Chelsea legend leaves up to 10 days after the end of the 2025/26 season.
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This could open the door for Klopp to take part before 2026/27, and Carvalho claimed that Germany “touched his heart” by declaring his desire to manage Benfica, who could win the Champions League under him.
“I’m only looking at one person. If I win an election, one of the first things I do is to open the door right away.
“My team had already knocked on the door and had already said what they wanted, and the door was still Ajal. It’s not time, so I stopped there.
“What I do is sit with Jurgen Klopp the following week and convince him that he has plans to coach Benfica and win the Champions League. I think I’ll convince him.
“Yes. The door is Ajar. Jurgen Klopp is the only coach who has ever said something touched my heart. “I want to coach Benfica,” he said.
“Especially because he has the traits of someone who enjoys creating and implementing projects. He’ll be that inspiring person. I’m sure he’ll lead us to win ‘listen’ in five or six years.
“And that’s my goal and I always aim high. If it can’t become Jurgen Klopp, it’s going to be that level of coach. I have no doubt about it.
“The key to winning the Champions League is a motivating coach. Not only are the teams, but the fans are fans. Benfica is huge and the pressure is immeasurable.
“A coach with this level of awareness needs a coach to take advantage of projects of this size and to motivate my team.
“And when things go wrong, I promise not to throw him away. We have a project that continues.”
Carvalho continued: “I’m an absolute decision-making man. Once I start thinking about Plan B, I’m already weakening Plan A.
“I’ve never done that because Plan B exists in my head only for statistical reasons. I fight to the end for Plan A. And when I’m sure I rarely fail.
“If you fail, you have time to come up with Plan B right away. But I’m not thinking about it. I don’t even have Plan B.
“This is my plan, for example, something that the coach was not available at that point.
“This (Klopp) is available, he is my team and I identified it as the best for our project in the profiles of seven or eight coaches, which is about building from scratch.
“And we use the regulatory resources we have, and because of Benfica’s investment capabilities, he is the right person to do it.
“I’ve convinced him and I think the door is already Ajar. He has never lost people, security, financial aspects, the challenges we are trying to present to him, the very professional scouting team we build, Benfica.
“When he saw our academy, when he saw that he only had champions in our academy. We have MVPs.
“Why didn’t these players get to the first team? They need to join right away.
“And when he sees this, feels it and is here with us, I’m sure he’s happy and he’ll lead us to a Champions League victory. I’m sure that.”
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