It’s the team meeting before the 2018 Champions League final in Kiev and everyone’s waiting for Jurgen Klopp to find the right words. Liverpool go into the game against Real Madrid with a degree of confidence, but they also know that they’re the underdogs.



There’s tension in the room. Klopp is about to speak. But first, he lifts up his top and stuffs it back into his underwear. The players are looking at him and then at each other, puzzled. Then, one by one, they notice the branding on Klopp’s pants.



“We saw he was wearing the boxer shorts of Cristiano Ronaldo,” Georginio Wijnaldum recalls. “He did the meeting with his shirt stuffed inside his ‘CR7’ boxers. The whole changing room was on the floor laughing their heads off. That really broke the ice. Usually in those situations, everyone is serious and concentrated. But he was relaxed and made this joke.”



Ronaldo and Madrid would have the last...