Furious Mainz ultras take shot at former manager Jurgen Klopp with new banners at RB Leipzig clash as the ex-Liverpool boss takes up new Red Bull role

Jurgen Klopp’s new role with Red Bull has not gone down too well with his former club Mainz, judging by some new banners.

After leaving his post at Liverpool at the end of the 2023-24 season, Klopp spent a few months out of work before taking up a role as Red Bull’s new Global Head of football. 

He had been linked with the German national team, however that position is currently filled by Julian Nagelsmann, though reports claim there is a break clause in Klopp’s deal with Red Bull that would allow him to take over the national team. 

RB Leipzig are one of the leading teams in the Bundesliga, however they are also one of the least popular, with German fans notoriously protective and ardent in their support of their clubs. 

Leipzig were only formed 15 years ago and have risen rapidly to the top of the ranks,  though much of the animosity stems from their ownership. 

Mainz fans held up new banners at their recent Bundesliga clash with RB Leipzig

‘Have you forgotten everything that we gave you,’ reads one of the banners aimed at Klopp

German clubs are subject to the 50+1 rule, which essentially means teams are always majority owned by the fans, with exceptions only when an entity has bankrolled a side for more than two decades.

However, while Red Bull bought 49 per cent of the club’s shares, they then limited the investment in the other 51 through prohibitive pricing and selection. 

The move is a legal one, but with German football so strongly linked with its fans, it is an extremely unpopular one throughout the nation. 

As such, Klopp – viewed as something of a man of the people back home – throwing his lot in with the most unpopular team in the country, who are perceived as a side that go against the existing fan culture, has been largely unpopular. 

Fans at Mainz, Klopp’s former club as both player and manager, unveiled some banners in their most recent game, making their thoughts on his latest appointment painfully clear.

‘Have you forgotten everything we gave you?’ read one banner held by fans at Saturday’s match against RB Leipzig.

Another chose to poke fun at a famous quote of Klopp’s, pointedly saying: ‘I like people until they disappoint me.’

Mainz fans are not the only ones to have reacted negatively to the news, with fans of  Borussia Dortmund – another of his former clubs – taking to social media to vent.

The German boss was at Mainz for 11 years as a player before taking the manager’s seat from 2001-2008 and taking them to the Bundesliga

The German has signed a ‘long-term’ deal to become the ‘Global Head of Soccer’ at Red Bull

‘Lost all respect for Klopp,’ one user wrote on X. ‘Bull is not easy to support.’ Their post included three vomiting emojis. 

Another said: ‘From “normal one” to can man. What a shame…’ A third wrote: ‘You made yourself a dog, Jurgen.’

‘You’re nobody in my book anymore. Every cop is a son of a b****,’ added a fourth Dortmund supporter.