Updated 12.55
JÜRGEN KLOPP WILL stand down as Borussia Dortmund manager on 1 July, putting a host of Premier League suitors on red alert.
Klopp confirmed the news at a press conference following growing speculation that he was set to quit the post this summer.
The 47-year-old still has three years to run on his current contract but German daily Bild reported that he is “exhausted” after seven seasons in the job and wants to take a sabbatical.
Speaking this afternoon, Klopp distanced himself from those reports and said: “It’s not that I am tired.
I don’t have any contact with another club but I don’t plan to take a year off either.
Bookmakers made him the 15/8 favourite to replace under-fire Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini, and a 6/1 shot to succeed Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
Former Mainz manager Thomas Tuchel is expected to replace Klopp at Dortmund, Bild reports.
Klopp took the Dortmund job in the summer of 2008, replacing Thomas Doll, and won a host of admirers as he restored the club to former glories.
Dortmund won Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012, the latter as part of a league and cup double, and narrowly missed out on Champions League glory in the first all-German final against bitter rivals Bayern Munich in 2013.
All the while Dortmund played “the kind of football people remember,” to use Klopp’s own words, marking them out as one of the neutrals’ favourite sides.
