Jürgen Klopp has carried a piece of Anfield with him into his new job, installing a pre-match ritual for the Germany national team that mirrors the famous sign above Liverpool’s player tunnel, welt.de reported. Under Klopp, Germany’s players now touch a poster bearing a new team motto in the dressing room before heading onto the pitch — the same gesture Liverpool’s squad performs with the “This is Anfield” sign that hangs over the Anfield tunnel.

The ritual comes straight from Klopp’s nine years on the Liverpool bench, from 2015 to 2024, during which he won the English league title, a domestic cup and the Champions League with the club. At Anfield, players touch the sign as a good-luck gesture immediately before emerging for kickoff. Bild.de reported that the same practice now applies to Germany: the motto hangs as a poster in the team’s locker room, and the professionals touch the lettering before matches.

The motto hanging in the Germany dressing room

The wording Klopp chose is “Für dich, für uns, für Deutschland” — “For you, for us, for Germany.” In a DFB video on YouTube, delivered as an address to the coaches of the association’s youth national teams, Klopp explained the phrase: “There is no ‘for me’ in it. Because the national team is not for me, but for you, for us all, and damn it all for Germany.”

Klopp, who at his introductory press conference as national team coach had already called for more positive patriotism in the country, struck a similar note in the speech. He said he wants Germany to have home dressing rooms in every stadium. “I want every stadium in Germany to be our stadium,” he said, pointing to the motto. “We don’t just pass by, are briefly there, change once and play a match. No, no: it is our home stadium.”

Home dressing rooms at every venue

The idea, per welt.de, is that the national team should treat every German ground as its own home — with the team’s jerseys hanging there and a properly set-up home locker room, furnished in part with the motto poster. The sign-touching ritual is the visible symbol of that approach.

Bild.de added a detail about how the gesture worked at Liverpool: Klopp only permitted his players to touch the “This is Anfield” sign after the team had earned the privilege by winning the Champions League in 2019. As national team coach, the outlet noted, he is apparently not quite so strict.

Klopp’s presence at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt

The DFB video also shows where Klopp spent time between the two international breaks, welt.de reported. Beyond the coaches’ conference, the national team coach attended several events at the DFB Campus in Frankfurt, including a session at which youth teams were allowed to complete a training unit on the campus grounds. He was also present at a reception for the European champions of 1996.

At the gathering of youth national team coaches, Klopp promised intensive cooperation. “It is not planned that I will only be here once and then we never see each other again. Quite the opposite,” he said. “You can have the world’s best academy. If the first team has no permeability, it will not remain the world’s best academy for long. We need this networking one hundred percent, and we will have it.”

From Liverpool to the DFB: what changes now

The ritual marks Klopp’s first visible imprint on the national team’s matchday routine since taking over from Julian Nagelsmann. It pairs a tangible gesture borrowed from his former club with a stated ambition — making every stadium in Germany feel like a home venue, and framing the national team as belonging to the fans rather than to any individual, including the coach himself.

Whether the motto and the touching ritual translate into results on the pitch remains to be seen at Germany’s next fixtures, but the routine is now in place: poster in the locker room, hands on the words, then out onto the field.