Jurgen Klopp storms out of interview amid Bastian Schweinsteiger racism row at World Cup

Jurgen Klopp made his feelings completely clear when stormed out of an interview asking him to respond to alleged racist comments made by Bastian Schweinsteiger.

On Thursday evening, Germany will face Ecuador at the New York New Jersey Stadium in their final match of the 2026 World Cup group stage.

After securing wins over Curaçao and Ivory Coast in their opening fixtures, Julian Nagelsmann's side have already secured their place on top of Group E.

Following the 2-1 win over Ivory Coast, much of the media focus in Germany has unfortunately not been about the result itself, but instead around comments made by Schweinsteiger.

While giving analysis for German World Cup broadcaster ARD about Ivory Coast, the former Manchester United and Bayern Munich midfielder made a series of comments that many deem to be racial stereotyping.

Discussing how Ivory Coast approached the match, Schweinsteiger said that they played “African football”, which can be “a bit unorthodox sometimes, a bit wild, not quite as tactical”.

Unsurprisingly, the comments haven't been received well in Germany, prompting a reporter from German outlet DW Sports to ask Klopp for his thoughts on Schweinsteiger’s comments while the former Liverpool boss was carrying out interviews about Germany's performances at the World Cup.

But Klopp made it very clear that it wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss.

“And now you want to carry on this subject,” a clearly frustrated Klopp said. “No, no – I have no chance to answer this question.

“Everybody likes it, so you bring me into this situation. It’s not my job that everybody likes it, but it is a serious subject and I don’t even know what is appropriate to say.

“For African people it’s one thing, for other people it’s another thing, and I’m not here.”

Klopp continued, explaining that he was pleasantly surprised that until then hadn't been asked about the topic, but appeared disappointed to have been asked by a German outlet after checking the microphone to see which reporter had asked the question.

“Thank God I thought nobody asked me about that, but you found a moment and surprisingly you are German. That surprised me so much,” he added.

Several other members of the German media have clearly and vocally condemned Schweinsteiger’s comments, with Philipp Awounou, a German journalist and author, describing then as “problematic".

“Behind attributions like ‘wild’ and ‘unpredictable’ are stereotypes which are older than football and which have racist, colonial roots," he told Der Spiegel.

“In the past, black people of African heritage were stigmatised as uncivilised [‘wild’], different [‘unorthodox’] and potentially dangerous [‘unpredictable’].”

However, Awounou added that, despite the comments, Schweinsteiger was not a racist, adding: “Regardless of his problematic remarks, Schweinsteiger is absolutely not a racist and shouldn’t be labelled as such.”

Jurgen Klopp fires brutal dig at fellow World Cup pundit

The incident is the second time that Klopp has been involved in a controversy since the start of the World Cup.

Following the Netherland's surprise 2-2 draw with Japan, he called out Rafael van der Vaart for his negative comments likening Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk's lack of movement to a “Boeing 747”.

“I don’t know if it’s worth naming Rafael van der Vaart at all,” Klopp said on German TV.

“But if he ever says something positive about a player, I’m willing to take him seriously again. You have the feeling that he sees something, which then has to be expressed in a flowery way and then he goes against it. But it’s not that important.”