“You’ll have to pay for it in September.”
Thomas Müller teases about shadow national coach Klopp
March 24, 2026 – 11:26 a.mReading time: 4 minutes
Müller jokes in front of the cameras about Klopp and his future at the DFB. Unrest is already inevitable when it comes to World Cup coverage.
Julian Buhl reports from Munich
On Monday afternoon, it wasn’t just the viewers who got a foretaste of what awaits them in the World Cup summer with the team of experts around the two world champions Thomas Müller and Mats Hummels as well as successful coach Jürgen Klopp on MagentaTV. Star presenter Johannes B. Kerner in particular had his hands full during the presentation show to keep the expert trio in check.
In every unobserved moment when the camera wasn’t pointed at them, the three ex-professionals whispered and joked with each other. Kerner had to ask his experts for calm and attention several times.
It was a bit like being at school when the teacher tries (in vain) to get his three most behaviorally problematic students under control. The fact that Kerner can’t actually succeed in the case of the three eloquent experts is part of the World Cup broadcaster’s plan. It already seems to be working out completely.
Time and again, Klopp and Müller in particular unleashed a veritable fireworks display live in front of the cameras. When Klopp was asked about the difficult balancing act between his role as a TV expert and that of the shadow national coach behind Julian Nagelsmann, Müller quickly took on the role of moderator. With a smug smile, he turned to Klopp and asked with an ironic undertone: “Would you do the same as national coach?”
Müller laughed, and before Klopp could answer the question, he leaned over to Hummels behind his back and said, still clearly audible through his microphone: “I actually wanted to say: ‘You’ll have to suffer it in September.'”
Klopp has been considered the German fans’ dream national coach for many years and is now once again seen as a possible successor to Nagelsmann. However, he is under contract with the DFB until 2028, including the next European Championship. And he is now going into the World Cup with the national team with great ambitions, where he has already declared winning the title several times as his goal. What Müller was probably alluding to: If the World Cup wasn’t as successful as hoped from a German perspective, the discussions about the national coach would probably start again. And then at the latest Klopp’s name would come up again.
When Klopp finally got around to answering, he said: “I don’t intend to lecture Julian Nagelsmann, I don’t intend to tell him how to do it better.” Klopp continued: “I think that in the end we as experts have to put into words what some people may not have seen. That’s more the task: to give an insight that you can’t get on TV.”
