Memories of an almost embarrassment: Jürgen Klopp shares anecdote about Germany debutant Jonas Urbig
Jürgen Klopp shared an intriguing anecdote about Bayern Munich goalkeeper Jonas Urbig, whom he helped make his international debut against Serbia in the Nations League on Thursday.
"Wow, what a goalkeeper," Klopp enthused before the match at Munich's Allianz Arena on ZDF as he praised Urbig's qualities, then revealed the keeper had first caught his eye a few years earlier in the second division.
Back when Urbig was at Fürth, Klopp did not really know why he was there. Liverpool played a pre-season friendly against Fürth and Klopp's goalkeeping coach at the time told him straight after the match: 'The lad is hugely interesting'," Klopp recalled of an almost embarrassing friendly for the Reds in pre-season in the summer of 2023.
Urbig, still only 19 at the time, had just joined second-division side Greuther Fürth on loan from 1. FC Köln and, despite conceding four goals, clearly turned in a pretty good display against mighty Liverpool. Fürth nearly even beat the English side coached by Klopp, leading 4-3 shortly before the end. Then, in the 89th minute, superstar Mohamed Salah, who left Anfield Road for Trabzonspor this summer, struck to make it 4-4.
What particularly interests Jürgen Klopp about Jonas Urbig?
On Wednesday, Klopp and Urbig spent two hours together in the car on the way to Munich for the press conference. "Yesterday we drove here for the press conference, we were together in the car for two hours: we now know everything about each other. Nothing there that I didn't want to know," Klopp revealed. He said he had the chance to get to know Urbig better on the journey. "Where does he come from? Who is the lad?" were the things that interested him, explained the Germany coach. "I'd seen the goalkeeper every day in training and it's much more exciting to find out what kind of character is behind that."
Following his loan spell at Fürth, Urbig returned to his youth club Köln in 2024 and initially established himself as number one for the then second-division side from the cathedral city. A few months later, however, Marvin Schwäbe pushed him onto the bench before he moved to Bayern at the start of 2025. Since then, the 23-year-old has been developed there as Manuel Neuer's successor and has repeatedly been given minutes, already making two appearances this season. If Neuer ends his career next summer, Urbig is set to become the new number one at the German record champions.
Shortly before the 2026 World Cup, former Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann called Urbig up to the senior national team for the first time, and Klopp, Nagelsmann's successor, also included Bayern's reserve goalkeeper in his squad. In the duel with Serbia, Urbig then made his first appearance in goal for Germany.
