Mohamed Salah has been desperate to challenge Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp to a rematch of padel ball.
Player and manager were seen taking each other on at the court game alongside Pep Lijnders and Thiago Alcantara earlier this week. And, speaking to liverpoolfc.com, Klopp says Salah has been bugging him to play again.
“The coaches, we play in our spare time – we love it, we just love the game and play it pretty much all the time. We have our average level,” said Jurgen. “Mo saw us from time to time playing and wanted to play against us desperately, so we now gave him the chance to play. But I’m not sure he’ll want to play again!”
“That’s not true actually – he asked all the time when we can play again. But it’s a wonderful game, we love it.”
Just in case anyone wasn’t sure exactly who won the game, as seen on the Liverpool Twitter page, Klopp was at pains to clear it up.
“For the outside world, we won. It’s good to get that message across because I told the LFCTV guys already, I didn’t watch the video until the end in the first place but then I thought it looks like we lost,” he joked. “But then I saw it again and I saw that they showed we shook hands after we won the game, so it’s all fine.”
Klopp lets his guard down in Dubai
Liverpool’s players look to be enjoying themselves out in Dubai. It was good to get a glimpse into what they’re getting up to in their downtime.
It was also a nice surprise to see the boss enjoying some time with his players.
Although he’s not exactly a taskmaster of a manager, there is undeniably some distance between the coaching and the playing staff.
Klopp once described himself as ‘a friend, but not a best friend’ to his players (The Daily Mail). That’s a good way to be and it has obviously been hugely successful for the German.
At the same time though, it’s great to see him let his guard down with two of his senior players.
Klopp famously asked for a padel ball court to be included in the blueprints for the new AXA Training Centre. Perhaps we’ll be seeing he and Mo go head-to-head on a more regular basis when they return home.
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