The Reds boss has been wowed by the story of the club legend and felt it was important for his players to pay their respects
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to club stalwart Ronnie Moran as "the perfect role model".
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Moran, who enjoyed an incredible 49-year association with Liverpool
as a player, coach, physio and caretaker manager, died on Wednesday,
aged 83.
He played as a left-back during Liverpool's First Division title wins
under the great Bill Shankly in 1963-64 and 1965-66 before taking on
coaching duties.
In 1998, he retired as Liverpool's longest-serving employee and an iconic figure of the fabled Anfield Boot Room.
Klopp met Moran at the club's Melwood training ground last year
having been left in no doubt as to his stature within Liverpool's rich
history.
"It's a sad day. I had the honour of meeting him last year around the
League Cup final," Klopp told Liverpool's official website after
observing a minute's silence in Moran's honour with his players at their
warm-weather training camp in Tenerife.
"Obviously I am not from Liverpool, I am not from England, and so I
needed a little bit of help but when I heard about this very special
story then it was really nice to meet him. It was a big honour for me.
"Today is a very sad day for all of us. All of our thoughts and all of our love are with the family.
"We tried to pay our respects like a football club should do for a
real member of the club, a real figure of the club, with a minute of
silence.
"It was impressive because the players were immediately in the mood;
all of them have heard about him and that shows how special his
relationship with this great club was."
Klopp added: "You will not have this a lot of times. It's nice and it
shows what a big value this is because it's so rare. Maybe more of us
should try to be like him – and in him we had the perfect role model.
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"I am sure nobody can, or will, forget him. It's a sad day, but on
the other hand it is a day where everybody thinks about him and thinks
about his very, very special story."
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