Jurgen Klopp is nearing the final stages of his memorable journey as Liverpool manager. After confirming his desire to step aside at the end of the 2023/24 season, the German gaffer is now hoping to go out with a bang. Fortunately for him, the players and fans are responding in kindness.
The Reds are currently top of the Premier League table and have a major shot at winning Klopp his first UEFA Europa League title too. Having already won the Carabao Cup, a Treble can mark a sweet and befitting end to the revolution that the German gaffer has created at Anfield.
Amid the sadness around Klopp’s departure, it appeared that there’s a crazy doppelganger of his who could maybe (?) be seen at Anfield in the near future.
An interesting picture that went viral indicated that FC Barcelona possessed Klopp’s lookalike. This is in the form of Oscar Hernandez, who works as an assistant coach at the Spanish club in Xavi Hernandez’s staff. It doesn’t take that much to guess but yes, Oscar is indeed the older brother of Xavi and has been a part of his staff since he took over at Barcelona back in 2022.
Xavi definitely appreciates the tactical nuance of his brother and gives him quite a bit of freedom to give instructions to players during matches. While Oscar Hernandez isn’t as spotlight-hungry as Eddie Howe’s assistant coach Jason Tindall at Newcastle United, he isn’t shy from approaching the touchline to make sure players fix errors in their game.
In Barcelona’s recent 1-0 win over Las Palmas in La Liga, the cameras caught a perfect glimpse of Oscar. The 47-year-old, who mostly played football in the lower Spanish divisions, was filling in for Xavi – who was suspended for the game. Oscar was cleaning his glasses and seemed to replicate the most Klopp-esque expression while watching the match.
Fans started to notice the crazy similarities between him and the Liverpool manager. This starts from having similar facial hair, facial structures and expressions too. He probably just only lacks the hairstyle of Klopp, but a hair transplant can probably change that too!
With that being said, it has since been cleared up that the picture that went viral was slightly edited to bring that kind of desired effect. The ‘real’ version of the moment Oscar was seen cleaning his glasses shows how the viral picture was photoshopped.
Another interesting thing about Oscar is that his appearance also changes quite a bit when he’s wearing his spectacles. He’s often given interviews during his time at Barcelona whilst wearing his glasses. When doing this, his appearance doesn’t look as identical to Klopp as he does when ditching the spectacles.
Though there are still identical features shared between Klopp and Hernandez – including similar facial features and a structure. They might be exactly doppelgangers, but Oscar could probably be passed around as one of Jurgen’s relatives.
Even though they never played together, Xavi holds his brother as a close ally in his coaching career. Oscar worked with the ex-Barcelona midfielder during his time coaching Qatar side Al-Sadd as his assistant coach before moving back to Catalonia with him too.
For the time being, there have been no notable rumours that have linked Xavi to take over as Liverpool manager from Klopp. A major reason could be the philosophical difference and because the Reds have never really deployed a ‘tiki taka’ style in their history. But if you ask some Liverpool fans, it might be a lot cooler if they’d bring in someone who reminds them of Klopp to embrace the Anfield touchline once he leaves.
