Jurgen Klopp turns down Marseille approach

Klopp quit Dortmund at the end of last season and is expected to have a sabbatical year as he considers his options for returning to football.

Marseille made an approach after being forced into emergency action when Argentine coach Bielsa quit after losing the opening game of the Ligue 1 season to Caen.

[FULL STORY: Bielsa quits after one game]

However, Klopp, who has been linked with jobs at Barcelona and Real Madrid, was not ready to cut short his time off.

"It is correct that Klopp has rejected Marseille," Klopp's representative, Marc Kosicke, told Bild.

"OM were really interested in signing him, but the time is not right yet for Jurgen to return to coaching yet."

Klopp won two league titles in seven seasons at Dortmund, losing the final of the 2013 Champions League to Bayern Munich.

This is surely the right decision by Klopp. What would be the point in rushing back to football with a club in crisis, when if he sits things out even greater opportunities will likely come his way? Such is the volatility of Spanish football, the Real Madrid and Barcelona jobs could both feasibly be in play at the end of the season while Liverpool, amongst others, could be looking for a new coach at some stage of the campaign.

Better to sit tight and wait for football's biggest clubs to beat a path to his door, as Pep Guardiola did before accepting Bayern Munich's offer. Bayern, incidentally, are also said to be thinking over Klopp as a replacement for Guardiola if he does decide against signing a new contract at the end of the season...