Liverpool fans say sad farewell to 'one of us' Klopp

LIVERPOOL, England : Liverpool fans were bidding farewell to their charismatic manager Juergen Klopp on Sunday with songs, murals and other tributes to an eight-year reign that brought the glory days back to one of England's greatest clubs.

The bespectacled 56-year-old German was to manage his beloved Reds for the 491st and final time at 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) against Wolverhampton Wanderers in front of a sellout crowd at Anfield.

With the Premier League game itself largely irrelevant now Liverpool cannot win the title, all focus was on Klopp, who had fought back tears as fans serenaded him at his final away game.

"We’ll never see his like again ... He's one of us," waxed John Pearman, founder of Liverpool fan magazine "Red All Over The Land" which brought out a special Klopp edition.

After leading the team to seven trophies, including Europe's Champions League in 2019 and a first English league title in three decades in 2020, Klopp is leaving of his own volition to recharge his batteries.

KLOPP'S CITY

He has not said what he will do next, beyond ruling out managing another club in England, out of respect for the working class port city he came to love as his own.

"I could have grown up here," he said in a club video.

"We gave Liverpool the best time of our life, and the other way round as well. I will never walk alone ever again in my life," he added, alluding to the song by 1960s Liverpool band Gerry and the Pacemakers that became the club anthem.

It was not only success that endeared Klopp to fans.

They loved his passion and personality: fist-pumps at the end of games, bear hugs for players, time for charitable causes, indignant protests at dubious decisions, and insistence on a high-energy aggressive "gegenpress" style of