Jurgen Klopp leaves Liverpool at the end of the season, decision made. It’s over between Liverpool and Klopp.

Jürgen Klopp startled Liverpool and the football world by announcing that he will quit the club at the conclusion of the season. The 56-year-old justified his unexpected decision to “running out of energy”.

Jurgen Klopp has been Liverpool’s manager since 2015 and is under contract until 2026, but he announced via the club’s media channel that he will step down two years early.

The news will be heartbreaking for Liverpool fans, who idolise the charismatic German, as well as the players and the club’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, whose recruitment of the former Borussia Dortmund coach transformed the club’s fortunes.

Klopp said he had told the owners in November of his intention to leave. “I can understand that it’s a shock for a lot of people in this moment, when you hear it for the first time, but obviously I can explain it – or at least try to explain it,” he said.

“I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.

“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.

“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth.”

Klopp said there were no underlying health issues for his departure. “I am OK. I am healthy, as much as you can be at my age. I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that maybe the job I do people see from the outside, I’m on the touchline and in training sessions and stuff like this, but the majority of all the things happen around these kind of things.

“That means a season starts and you plan pretty much the next season already. When we sat there together talking about potential signings, the next summer camp and can we go wherever, the thought came up, ‘I am not sure I am here then any more’ and I was surprised myself by that. I obviously start thinking about it

“It didn’t start [then], but of course last season was kind of a super-difficult season and there were moments when at other clubs probably the decision would have been, ‘Come on, thank you very much for everything but probably we should split here, or end it here.’ That didn’t happen here, obviously. For me it was super, super, super-important that I can help to bring this team back onto the rails. It was all I was thinking about.

When I realised pretty early that happened, it’s a really good team with massive potential and a super age group, super characters and all that, then I could start thinking about myself again and that was the outcome. It is not what I want to do, it is just what I think is 100% right. That’s it.”

Jurgen Klopp has led Liverpool to Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, and Club World Cup victories. They advanced to another Carabao Cup final on Wednesday and are five points ahead of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table.