Jürgen Klopp, former Liverpool boss turned Red Bull head of global soccer, believes the financial entry point to soccer in the U.S. remains a roadblock in terms of development.
The 58-year-old former coach oversees multiple teams in the Red Bull network including Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls. The former Premier League and Champions League-winning manager was in New York for meetings before attending a Red Bulls match against state rival New York City FC.
Klopp spoke on the state of U.S. soccer as a whole highlighting how the monetary side of the game, or the ‘pay-to-play’ model, remains a key point of contention with overall growth.
“We have a couple of problems in the USA,” Klopp told . “So I’m the new guy. So I’m not the one who says, ‘I change it’, it’s not my personality. I just observe and see what could be a problem.
“Youth football can be expensive. So that makes no sense at all to get the best talents. We all know that the best players [in the world] are not coming from the richest areas. I think the last one [best player in the world at the time] who was rich before he started playing was Kaká, if I am right. So this part of motivation is essential.”
