8,500 football fans from around the world awarded Jürgen Klopp the title of „Hattrick’s Real Life Manager of the Year“ – Dortmund coach donates prize money to children in Dortmund

London – July, 2013. From the perspective of international fans Jürgen Klopp is currently the best coach in Europe. This is the result of an annual vote from “Hattrick – the original football manager game“. 8,500 fans and cyber-managers from more than one hundred countries participated in this year’s election of „Hattrick’s Real Life Manager of the Year“, in which 40 per cent voted Klopp as the best coach for the 2012/13 football season. Jupp Heynckes of Champions League winners Bayern Munich was the only other real contender for the title, but he finished second to the Borussia Dortmund manager with 33 per cent of the vote. Third place went to British legend Sir Alex Fergusson, who spent his final season at Manchester United this year by winning the Premier League. Manuel Pellegrini from Malaga CF finished fourth, narrowly beating Antonio Conte from Juventus who rounds out the top five best European managers of the 2012/13 season. The winner Jürgen Klopp commented on the award: „I was voted the best manager of the year by the Hattrick users? I really didn’t expect that, but I am really pleased since the voices of your users help the child protection agency in Dortmund.“

The election of „Hattrick’s Real Life Manager of the Year“ was held for the first time this year and at the end of it all Hattrick donates 1,000 EUR to a charity project of the winner’s choice. Jürgen Klopp chose the “Kinderschutzbund Dortmund” (Child Protection Agency Dortmund). „We are very pleased that Jürgen Klopp has thought of us and above all the children of our facility are very excited, because for our small Dortmund fans it has been clear: Kloppo is the best. Now more than ever!“ says Martina Furlan, Executive of the Kinderschutzbund Dortmund.

Ten candidates by pre-election, then a final vote
The vote ran in two stages. First ten coaches were nominated by a pre-election on the Hattrick Facebook page. These ten candidates then became part of a final vote on the Hattrick website where 8,500 Hattrick players voted. These aren’t just regular fans either – all are coaching experts who are familiar with the skills of a successful football manager, since every week they have to find the right tactics and line-up for their virtual team themselves. They voted for Klopp, who won out against such well-known coaches like Jose Mourinho, Frank de Boer, Fatih Terim and Jupp Heynckes.

„Congratulations to Borussia Dortmund’s Jürgen Klopp for winning the first Hattrick Real Life Manager of the Year Award. This year our community in reality only considered 2 managers worthy of the award. It was a close race between Jupp Heynckes and Jürgen Klopp, but this year’s winner shows that in the opinion of our community of 600.000 online football managers, working hard and improving your team is considered more of an achievement than winning 3 trophies with a team of superstars like Jupp Heynckes did,“ said Jesper Mejer Andersen, Marketing Director at Hattrick, Europe’s largest online football manager game.

About Hattrick
Founded in 1997, Hattrick is one of the largest online football manager games worldwide. After initially 16 managers in a league played against each other at the virtual Hattrick Championship, there are now almost 600,000 users who play one million Hattrick matches every week. But Hattrick is much more than a virtual football ground. Over the years Hattrick has grown into a vibrant community. An average of 60,000 forum posts every day provides a lively exchange among the members of Hattrick, and 280 million posts annually proves one thing: the true football experts can be found at www.hattrick.org.

Press contact:
Sascha Theisen
STAMMPLATZ Kommunikation
Tel. 02234/9336526
E-Mail: theisen@stammplatz-kommunikation
URL: www.stammplatz-kommunikation.de