Three years later, in September 2022, the co-founder of drinks manufacturer Red Bull, was dying of pancreatic cancer. Mateschitz would have barely a month to live when he invited a special guest to one of his villas close to Salzburg, the city in Austria where his empire is based. That guest was Jurgen Klopp, then Liverpool ’s manager.

Across a quarter of a century and three clubs, Jurgen Klopp had forged a reputation as the people’s champion, the charismatic communicator with the capacity to get everyone to buy into what he was doing.