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On Klopp of their game — ex-Liverpool manager’s fame boosts Hout Bay FC’s fortunes

On Klopp of their game — ex-Liverpool manager’s fame boosts Hout Bay FC’s fortunes
Jürgen Klopp enjoys time with players from Hout Bay United FC and its community. (Photo: Supplied by Kick-Off)
Craig Ray
By Craig Ray
23 Mar 2025
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Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp loves being able to use his fame to help develop football in communities that take pleasure in the sport.

Jürgen Klopp’s role in building soccer clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool FC into league and Champions League winners is well known and widely celebrated.

He even moulded his German hometown club of Mainz into a Bundesliga-level team despite vastly inferior resources compared with the rest of the league. He is obviously a winner, but he is much more than that.

Every club in which Klopp (57) has been involved still holds him in extremely high regard because he was never a manager who just came for the money and the glory. At each stop, he integrated himself into the local society, working with teams that were deeply rooted in their communities. Klopp loved this aspect of management as much as dealing with world-class players in the best competitions in the world.

So, it’s no surprise, then, that he is a benefactor and supporter of Hout Bay United FC (HBUFC) in Cape Town. It’s a small club, established with a mission to give kids from all backgrounds in the area a chance to play soccer and find a sense of community.

Decade of growth


HBUFC was established 10 years ago by an Englishman named Jeremy Elson, along with some friends, including its co-CEO, Dali Fekenisi.

The group played social soccer matches on a small field in Hangberg, the working-class suburb overlooking Hout Bay harbour. More and more children joined these informal games and soon Elson and his mates decided to formalise the club and provide some structure.

As ever, amateur clubs need funds, especially in poorer areas. Enter Iris Henkel and her husband Andreas, a German couple who call South Africa home. The couple came to South Africa when Andreas worked for one of the 2010 World Cup sponsors and was posted here to assist in delivering the tournament. They never left.

The Henkels’ son played in these informal games and asked his parents, given their skills, to help with fundraising. They have a friend named Marc Kosicke, who owns a house in Cape Town and also happens to be Klopp’s agent.

The Henkels and Kosicke became involved with HBUFC in 2014, helping with marketing and fundraising, and when Klopp visited Kosicke in Cape Town in 2017, he was introduced to the Henkels and the club.

In typical Klopp fashion, he asked what he could do to help. The rest is history.

How much Klopp donates is not revealed and nor is it essential to know. The important factor is that his reputation and occasional time are hugely important to the growth of the club, which now boasts 15 teams from under-five to senior men’s and women’s teams.

Klopp Jürgen Klopp enjoys time with players from Hout Bay United FC and its community. (Photo: Supplied by Kick-Off)



The men’s first team play in the ABC Motsepe League (the third tier of South African football) and the women’s senior side in the second-tier Sasol Women’s League. The club has also built a modest academy called the Dream Factory, which houses 35 academy and senior players, has training facilities and a canteen.

HBUFC has entered into strategic partnerships with other organisations, but Klopp’s name is the biggest drawcard for the little club on the southern tip of Africa.

Whirlwind visit


Klopp’s schedule at Liverpool between 2017 and 2024 never allowed much time for a trip to HBUFC. He also started a new job as Red Bull’s head of global football earlier this year. But in early March, the popular German managed a trip to Cape Town and specifically to HBUFC, to see the growth of the club first-hand and raise funds.

Klopp was the guest of honour at a R2,000-a-head function at the Harbour Market and an auction that injected an additional R50,000-plus into the club’s coffers. Several hundred people attended. He also helped out at training sessions and a clinic with the club’s juniors in which he imparted advice, but also listened and learnt.

“I can’t say HBUFC’s success has anything to do with me. I try to help where I can. Some people have paid a lot of money to talk and sit with me,” Klopp said with an embarrassed laugh. “But okay, it’s important to help HBUFC.

“I went to the youth training and saw youngsters and their coach playing and enjoying football. It’s just nice to see, and it fills me with energy because not every day being ‘Jürgen Klopp’ is a great day.

“I’m okay with myself, but I would love to go out where no one recognises me. You don’t know how cool it is to get pissed somewhere and nobody gives a shit. I would love to be able to do that, but I can’t.

“So, if my face helps, and if the things I say help, I like to do that. What I saw today and what has happened over here at HBUFC... they have done a brilliant job.

“The club brings people together. Giving people a reason to ‘go for it’ is what I love the most, so if we can do that here, why not?”

Jürgen Klopp at Hout Bay United FC. (Photo: Supplied by Kick-Off)


‘I couldn’t be happier for Liverpool’


Klopp found time to enjoy a beer and sing along to the Liverpool anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone before taking the stage to speak to his adoring fans.

Naturally, conversation turned to Liverpool FC and his time in Merseyside that brought the club’s first league title in 30 years in 2020 and a Champions League title, among many other trophies.

Read more: Jurgen Klopp will be ‘Dr Football’ in his new role at global giant Red Bull

Liverpool currently hold a 12-point lead at the summit of the Premier League with nine matches remaining. It would be a dramatic collapse if they failed to win their 20th title from here.

Klopp left his successor, Arne Slot, an excellent squad, and he recoils at the suggestion that it must upset him to see Slot succeeding with “his” team.

“I loved living and working in Liverpool and the good thing is I’m still in contact with all the people there,” Klopp said.

“When I came in here and you were all singing [You’ll Never Walk Alone] and the mood when I came... it struck that it’s so nice to have had the opportunity of this wonderful club [Liverpool] because it is so fucking big that wherever you go, there are LFC fans.

“I’m so happy with how we finished at Liverpool and even more happy with how well they are doing now. It is so nice to have left in such a good way.

“Life is like that. Your life changes and things develop in good and bad directions and I couldn’t be happier for Liverpool doing exactly what they’re doing now.

“That’s the idea – that it goes on. Why would I leave and want them to see how bad it is without me? What a horrible way to think. I hope they do well, even better than we did before. And that’s exactly what’s happening.” DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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