Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp boasts a non-conformist fashion sense and is known for his dazzling smile, which famously became several shades brighter during his time at the club. The tall, lean football boss sports a signature baseball cap, beard and - until recently - glasses too.
The 56-year-old's casual chic even saw British Vogue brand him the Premier League's best dressed manager in 2020. With Klopp's time at the club ending after nearly nine years, in which he won eight trophies, the Mirror takes a light hearted glance back at the manager's evolving look over the seasons and wonders if presenter Rylan Clark had anything to do with it...
Signature style
Many football managers are known for their sharp dressing, sporting perfectly tailored suits on the touchline. Not Klopp.
Klopp pictured in 2015, the year he took over at the club (AFP via Getty Images)
The manager was named the Premier League's 'best-dressed' by British Vogue in 2020 (Getty Images)"I have a suit for weddings, funerals and if someone tells me I have to wear a suit, otherwise this will never be my ideal," he told talkSPORT. "I don't feel comfortable in it. The tie, I cannot breathe properly. I'm really happy that the kit man gives me something I can jump in and I got out.
"When I started in the Champions League I did it because somebody told me it was 'duty', so that's why. In the first when I saw another manager standing next to me not wearing a suit I was done."
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Trainers accompany Klopp's casual outfits of course and he even designed his own pair of New Balance shoes in 2019. Since 2018, he added a Liverpool cap to his look too.
In 2020, no less than British Vogue dubbed Klopp the Premier League's best-dressed manager, calling him a 'loveable nerd' and a 'style icon for a post-coronavirus world'. "The nation is in agreement: Tight, tailored formalwear is out and comfortable, low-key, easy-going clothing is in," they concluded.
New pearly whites
When watching a Liverpool press conference in 2017, fans noticed the manager's teeth had become several shades lighter. Klopp later told how he was being treated for dental problems, requiring antibiotics, when he had decided to request 'something new'. "I like them but obviously it’s different, but they feel comfortable," he said.
Klopp pictured in 2016, before his work with the 'football dentist' (Daily Mirror)
The German stuns with his new smile in 2017 (AFP/Getty Images)Klopp's new dentures are the work of the so-called 'football dentist' Dr Robbie Hughes who owns the Dental Excellence practice based in Liverpool. Dr Hughes first treated Reds defender Martin Skrtel in 2008, before midfielder Lucas Leiva and the entire Brazilian friendship group at Anfield came to see him.
"The process involved quite some hours in the chair for Jurgen but he has always been a great patient," the dentist told The Athletic. "His smile plays a big part of his personality, which is bold and bright. I always feel immensely proud and privileged to be behind it."
Rylan Clark and his uncannily similar toothy white smileThe dentist had to invent a new shade of white for centre-forward Roberto Firmino, who requested 'maximo' whiteness for his teeth. Klopp didn't go quite as dazzling when it came to his new dentures, joking to Soccer AM: "It was not that I saw Bobby Firmino's teeth and said: 'I want them!'"
But the manager's new teeth were bright, shiney pearly white in the style of reality TV star Rylan, who just like him sports a good beard and even beat him to the title of Beard of the Year in 2019.
No more glasses
Glasses were always a part of Klopp's signature look but when the 2021-2022 football season began something was missing. The manager later explained all to German newspaper BILD, saying: "I've been wearing glasses since I was ten years old - that's 44 years. The problem in recent years was that the glasses could no longer correct my poor eyesight.
"The solution to this was a minor intervention. It wasn't lasering or anything, but it made me see very well without glasses at the moment." Klopp had favoured the Oakley Pitchman R style of glasses, sporting them in different colours and making them one of the most requested celebrity styles.
The manager no longer needed glasses after an eye procedure in 2021 (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)And the manager admitted not wearing them anymore had taken some getting used to. "I think my face is weird without glasses but I don't need them anymore," he said. Fans of the club agreed, with one tweeting that seeing Klopp without his trademark glasses was like seeing 'Superman without a cape'.
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Changing hair and beard
The Liverpool boss sported differing beard lengths after joining Liverpool in 2015 before lockdown when his beard became longer and more silver. When Klopp reached a milestone of managing 1,000 games in 2023, he joked: "The beard is now really grey! It was not the case when I arrived here..."
The manager had undergone a hair transplant before joining Liverpool, when he was coach of Borussia Dortmund. "Yes, it's true, I underwent a hair transplant," he told a German reporter. "And I think the results are really cool, don't you?"
Klopp joked in 2023 that his time as Liverpool manager had turned his beard grey (Belga/AFP via Getty Images)Mario Gotze, who was a teenage protegee of Klopp's at the German club, said he had been laid back about having the work done. "I will never forget the time I ran into him in Dusseldorf during the summer," he told The Players' Tribune. "He was going to see the specialist there to have his hair transplant done.
"This became big news in Germany, but he was so funny about it. He was smiling, telling me all about it - how cool it was going to look and everything. And then as he was leaving, he just gave me a wink and he said: 'Mario, don’t worry, I will save the phone number'... In a few years, you might need it'."
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