Jurgen Klopp's response to the Bastian Schweinsteiger controversy was, essentially, to leave the room. Asked by Deutsche Welle on Wednesday to comment on his compatriot's description of African football as "wild" and "unorthodox," Klopp smiled, said "I'm not here," and walked off camera.
"I have no chance to answer this question," he said before departing. "This is a serious subject and I don't even know what is appropriate to say. For African people it's one thing, for other people it's another thing."
He couldn't resist a parting shot at the journalist: "Surprisingly you are German — that surprised me so much."
What Schweinsteiger actually said
The comments that started all this came before Germany's match against Ivory Coast in Toronto last week. Speaking on ARD — the German public broadcaster that holds rights to the tournament — Schweinsteiger described the Ivorians as playing "African football," characterising it as "a bit wild, a bit unorthodox and a bit perhaps not so conditioned by tactics."
The backlash in Germany was swift. Journalist Philipp Awounou wrote in Spiegel that the framing carried "racist, colonial roots," pointing out that Black people of African heritage have historically been "stigmatised as uncivilised, different and potentially dangerous." Awounou stopped short of calling Schweinsteiger himself a racist — but argued the comments reflect a broader attitude among many German football fans. That distinction matters, and it's an uncomfortable one.
Schweinsteiger's representatives and ARD have not responded to requests for comment.
Klopp's position is complicated
Klopp isn't a neutral bystander here. He's currently working as a pundit for Magenta — who hold exclusive German rights to 44 World Cup matches — so he's embedded in the same media ecosystem as Schweinsteiger. Weighing in publicly would have put him in direct conflict with a fellow German football institution. Saying nothing kept him clean. Whether it was the right call is a different question entirely.
The former Liverpool manager left Anfield in 2024 after eight seasons that included the 2019-20 Premier League title, and is now serving as Red Bull's global head of soccer alongside his punditry work. He's in a position of considerable influence. Which is exactly why walking away from the question will draw as much attention as anything he could have said.
Schweinsteiger, meanwhile, spent 17 seasons at Bayern Munich, earned 121 caps for Germany, and has become a fixture of ARD's football coverage since retiring from Chicago Fire in 2020. His punditry profile only grew through this tournament — until last week.
