BERLIN, May 8 -- Head coach Juergen Klopp led Liverpool to a 4-0 crush of Barcelona and to the Champions League final, but a disappointing record in the finals for Klopp as a football coach offers no help.
The 51-year-old coach lost all of his latest six finals -- the Champions League defeat in 2013 against Bayern Munich (2-1) at Wembley as Dortmund coach followed by the crash in 2017 and 2017 in the German Cup finals against Bayern and the VfL Wolfsburg (2-0/3-1).
In 2016 he lost the English FA Cup final against Manchester City (4-2 on penalties) followed by the Euro League final in 2016 (3-1 to FC Sevilla) and in 2018 the Champions League final against Real Madrid (3-1).
He won only one, the 2017 German Cup final (5-2 against Bayern Munich).
The former Borussia Dortmund coach, who still claims "to be the normal one", is of course far from ordinary. Despite preponderantly losing finals, he might be the best motivator among all existing coaches.
He praised his players as mentality monsters after crushing Barcelona, but he seems nothing less than a mentality giant himself.
The Liverpool coach reached a final for the eighth time after an epic victory over Barcelona and super star Lionel Messi. Things could finally change to good for Klopp on June 1 in Madrid when the 2019 Champions League final is played.
Klopp is looking at his assumed final-curse with humour and amusement. "If God needs to prove that someone having lost six finals is not tired trying a seventh time, I might be the perfect person to do it," he said.
After having reached the third final in four years with the Reds, Klopp claims to know "what people say."
"They say this guy can't win finals. And they are right. But we are there again, and that is something special.
"If only winners have the right to exist, we can pack it all to one spot and stop trying. Life for me is trying and trying over and over again - and having fun and feeling passion while trying."
Having lost that many finals don't turn him into a broken person, he said. "I am not a devastated human being."
He admits none of his defeats has been great fun, and he still seems to cherish what could be called a personal cognition of life such as to say "the route becomes the destination."
On his long journey, Klopp can count on the unlimited support of millions of German football fans. "He turns all of us into believers," the Sueddeutsche commented. The Welt wrote: Klopp! Liverpool! Lunacy!
Other German media say Klopp is telling them to never give up in football and everywhere else, adding they keep their fingers crossed for the coach's next attempt.