PARIS (Reuters) – Juergen Klopp was famous for inspiring comebacks, but even the former Liverpool manager is amazed by his friend Wojtek Czyz who battled back from an horrific football injury to become a multiple paralympic champion.
Klopp was in the stands at La Chapelle Arena on Thursday to support his 44-year-old friend as he competed in the badminton competition at Paris 2024.
The pair have known each other for more than 20 years after Czyz, a four-time Paralympic champion in athletics who has switched to compete in badminton for New Zealand, suffered the injury that not only ended his football career but led to his leg being amputated.
Klopp was far from a lucky charm, for his friend, who lost 21-5 21-2 against Briton Daniel Bethell, the second seed, but the Champions League winning coach knew this one was one of the rare occasions in sport when the result is less important than taking part.
“I couldn’t be prouder of him. Yesterday we were standing in front of the Eiffel Tower and we thought wow, it’s super, super special,” Klopp said.
“That’s another thing being here I sit next to his incredible wife Elena, and we both had tears in our eyes, because I know sport is always about results, about winning, but that’s much more behind that story and being here, it’s always so touching that I couldn’t get my head around it.”
Czyz had been a promising footballer when he signed for Fortuna Koeln in 2001, but he suffered a dreadful knee injury in a collision with a goalkeeper, which caused multiple fractures. His treatment was delayed and his leg had to be amputated.
Klopp and Czyz met at a charity match during the player’s recovery and the pair became friends.
“The beginning of the story is for sure slightly different because that was the accident, the amputation, then he was a super professional athlete and it was not a time where we were really close. Then we met in 2015 before I joined Liverpool at the harbour in Lisbon, I was on holidays,” Klopp recalled.
“We were playing frisbee,” said Czyz, who was then about to set sail as part of his campaign for his association, Sailing4Handicaps, whose goal is to help amputees get prosthetics for free.
“It was destiny,” said Klopp, who praised his friend’s journey.
“It’s the most inspiring I’ve heard in my life, this story has to be told. It has to be.”
DIVING WITH SHARKS
Czyz, however, is not sure if he wants Klopp to attend his next match.
“I have to think about it because today was not such a success for me, maybe he’s a curse,” Czyz joked.
“I enjoyed all five points, Klopp, who left Liverpool at the end of last season after a trophy-laden nine years on Merseyside, replied with a big laugh.
Yet Czyz welcomed Klopp’s presence at the Games, as it helped to draw media attention to para sports, if only for a day.
“Juergen’s presence is a great statement and it makes me prouder of him,” he said, praising Klopp for his advice.
“Ten years ago, I would maybe now break all my rackets (after losing), but now I am understanding what is happening. I am patient now, but for sure, this was not the result I wanted today, right? And this is what I learned from Juergen,” he explained.
“You have to keep going, you can lose, if you lose and you gave it all, then be happy with yourself.”
Asked if he had learned anything from Czyz, Klopp joked: “He’s too crazy. We are completely different. He’s doing things I’m not brave enough to do. He told me yesterday how easy it is to dive with sharks,” the German said with his trademark grin.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)
