Yesterday, former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp visited the Paralympic Games in Paris, and he had a very specific purpose for doing so.
After leading the Merseyside Premier League team for nine years, the 57-year-old German is taking a professional sabbatical.
Additionally, he was seen cheering for his longtime friend Wojtek Czyz at the SL3 badminton tournament in the French capital on Thursday afternoon at La Chapelle Arena.
Czyz had just signed a professional football deal with Fortuna Cologne in 2001 when he was involved in a devastating goalie accident that required the amputation of his left lower leg.
Klopp was the manager of Mainz at the time and didn’t know Czyz personally but was aware of the awful incident.
The pair later first met during a charity match when Czyz played with a prosthetic leg for Kaiserslautern against Klopp’s Mainz.
Their relationship blossomed into a close friendship when they bumped into each other by chance on a beach in Lisbon in 2015 – just as Klopp was awaiting a call from his agent to confirm his move to Liverpool.
‘It is the most inspiring story I’ve heard in my life,’ Klopp told The Telegraph of Czyz’s incredible recovery to participate in high-level sport as an athlete. ‘It has to be told.’
Czyz has won seven Paralympic medals, including three golds at Athens in 2004 in the long jump F42/F44, the 100m T42 and 200m T42.
He then won long jump gold in Beijing in 2008 and silver at London 2012 where he also bagged two bronze medals in the 100m and 4x100m men’s relay.
Wojtek Czyz and Jurgen Klopp are close friends
It’s that astonishing success in the face of adversity which Klopp used as inspiration in the dressing room through the years to reinforce to his players how you can overcome the worst misfortune possible.
Czyz only started playing para-badminton a few years ago and suffered a 21-5, 21-2 defeat to to Britain’s Daniel Bethell in his first match.
But it didn’t stop both him and Klopp beaming with smiles afterwards in what the ex-Liverpool boss admitted was an emotional day.
‘He’s too crazy, we are completely different,’ Klopp said. He’s constantly doing things that I’m not brave enough to do. He told me only yesterday how easy it is to dive with sharks and I said, “Yeah, I heard it now, I’m still not doing it.”
‘He’s 44, by the way. I stood next to Elena, his incredible wife, and we had tears in our eyes.
‘I know sport is always about the result and winning, but there’s much more behind that story and being here was so touching that I couldn’t get my head around it.’
The good friends were seen embracing one another for pictures together and Czyz described how Klopp even supported him financially in a project he set up to sail around the world delivering artificial limbs to developing countries.
‘Jurgen is family,’ Czyz said. ‘It’s incredible that Jurgen wants to come.
‘He has been involved in all my close decisions. For his 50th birthday, he said, “I don’t want presents, I want to make a donation to you to sail.”
‘He’s really an incredible guy. Now he wants to spend his time as a grandpa.
‘When you dedicate yourself to something 100% for so many years, then there is also a right time to say, “I’ve had enough.”‘
Czyz, who was born in Poland before moving to Germany, has previously represented Germany throughout his career but is playing under the New Zealand flag in 2024, which is his adopted home where he now lives with his wife.