Flick, not Klopp deserves World Best Coach Award, says Ugbade

Former international, Nduka Ugbade, has expressed reservations over the choice of Liverpool’s coach, Jurgen Klopp, as World Best Coach of the Year Award winners. Klopp beat the favourite, Bayern Munich’s coach, Hansi Flick, to the award.

He, however, agreed that the choice of Robert Lewandoski was in agreement with everyone’s expectations because of his performance this year.

Speaking to The Guardian on Friday, Ugbade stated that there was no way a coach, who won a treble after taking over the management of Bayern that was in crisis at the mid-season shouldn’t be crowned the world best.

The ex-international said Flick surpassed every other coach in terms of achievements during the year.

Klopp, on Friday, had expressed disbelief at getting the award ahead of Flick despite winning just the Premier League this year.

“The likelihood of Lewandoski winning the best player of the year had been brewing over the years. The exceptional talents of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have been his nemesis.

“There is no year that Lewandoski had not been performing. He has been doing so well in the last eight years or even beyond that both for his country and club. There is no doubt in my mind that he justified all the accolades based on his performances throughout the year.

“But the one that I totally disagree with is that of Klopp as the winner of the world best coach award.
Someone has to do the analysis to me critically only then will I believe why Flick did not deserve to win the award. I believe strongly that Coach Flick should have been given the coach of the year award,” he said.

“Nothing much really happened under Klopp this year, maybe because of the pandemic. I want to believe that Flick, who took a team in its distress and went ahead to win the domestic league, Champions League and the trophy between holders of the Champions League and Europa. This is my own opinion and it is based on what has happened in recent time,” he stated.

Ugbade, a former assistant coach of the national U-17 team, said, “Even at the venue of the award when Klopp’s name was announced as the winner, we saw the way every other person reacted because they never agreed to Klopp’s choice.

The Liverpool Coach got the nod of national team coaches, captains, and selected journalists, whose votes gave him the award.