Rafael Benitez officially welcomed Jurgen Klopp into “the club” after the Liverpool manager guided his team to Champions League glory against Tottenham.
The Reds won the final 2-0 thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah and Divock Origi, giving Klopp his first Champions League trophy as a manager and Liverpool their first European triumph since Benitez guided them to victory in 2005.
“Congratulations to @LFC and all the fans. Welcome to the club Jurgen,” Benitez tweeted.
Benitez was not the only one congratulating Klopp. The German’s former club Borussia Dortmund, who Klopp lost the final with in 2013, tweeted: “GLUCKWUNSCH, Kloppo!”
A number of champions from the Reds’ 2005 win also took to social media to celebrate, with Jamie Carragher simply tweeting six trophy emojis to represent the six European Cups the Anfield club has won, while John Arne Riise posted: “I love this club, what a manager we have.”
Pepe Reina joined the Reds immediately after their 2005 success and was in the stadium to watch his former club win their first major trophy since 2012.
“Has been emotional to watch @LFC lift it for the 6th time ‘LIVE’ at the @Metropolitano,” he tweeted. “CONGRATS to all Liverpool FAMILY!!”
Loris Karius made two errors in the 2018 Champions League final that Real Madrid won 3-1 at Liverpool’s expense.
Having spent the 2018/19 season on loan at Besiktas, Karius tweeted: “Congrats, @LFC. Really happy for everyone at the club and fans. You deserved this.”
Liverpool knocked Bayern Munich out at the last-16 stage of this year’s competition and the Bundesliga club’s English language Twitter account paid tribute to the all-conquering Reds team.
“At least we can say we lost to this year’s best team. Congrats, @LFC” the German champions posted.
