Jürgen Klopp is set to take charge of Germany’s national team after reaching a basic agreement with the federation in a hastily convened New York summit. The former Liverpool manager, in the United States as a television pundit for the 2026 World Cup, met DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and vice-president Hans-Joachim Watzke for more than four hours on Friday at an airport hotel. The breakthrough came barely a week after Julian Nagelsmann stepped down in the wake of Germany’s elimination on penalties by Paraguay in the round of 32 – the third successive World Cup in which the four-time champions have failed to reach the quarter-finals.

In a statement, the DFB confirmed that “essential key points” of a contract had been settled and talks would continue, with both sides confident the negotiations could be concluded successfully once Klopp’s current employer, Red Bull, grants his release. The deal would run until the 2030 World Cup, covering Euro 2028, and would pay around €7 million annually, comparable to Nagelsmann’s salary. Klopp, 59, may retain an ambassadorial role with the energy drinks conglomerate. Final approval must come from a joint session of the DFB supervisory board and shareholders, ensuring the process remains subject to the federation’s governance.

Viewed from inside Germany, the appointment reconfigures the game’s power structures. The deep personal bond between Klopp and Watzke, forged during Borussia Dortmund’s back-to-back Bundesliga triumphs, returns to the foreground, while sporting director Rudi Völler completes a leadership triangle that, unlike the Flick and Nagelsmann eras, carries no trace of Bayern Munich. Across Latin American media, the swift German move has been read as an uncompromising answer to a crisis that saw Die Mannschaft also lose to Ecuador in the group stage and confirmed the end of a cycle.

Klopp’s return to the touchline comes with a mandate to rebuild a side that last lifted the World Cup in 2014. His vast club pedigree – Champions League and Premier League glory at Liverpool, two league titles and a German Cup with Dortmund – has made him the public’s overwhelming choice. He said during the tournament that after two years away he felt “more than recharged”. Long-time assistants Peter Krawietz and Pepijn Lijnders are expected to join him on the bench.

The first test is pencilled in for 24 September, a Nations League fixture away to the Netherlands. By then, the DFB aims to have resolved the Red Bull question and formalised Klopp’s contract, setting the stage for what German football hopes will be a decisive turn in its fortunes.