Four short-form videos that falsely claim to show Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp reacting angrily to questions from Chinese reporters about South Korean and Chinese football players have been viewed millions of times on YouTube. The questions, however, were added to genuine clips of Klopp at press conferences and Korean-language subtitles mistranslated his answers to give the false impression he is answering them.
The clips, which have been viewed more than nine million times in total, were all posted on a YouTube channel called Mr Football between July 15 and July 27, 2023.
They all claim to show an exasperated Klopp answering questions from reporters that praise Chinese football players and either belittle or claim Korean players are in fact Chinese.
The claims surfaced amid a rapid rise in anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea in recent years, with The Korea Herald newspaper reporting in August 2022 that Koreans’ dislike for their neighbour appeared to be reaching a peak (archived link).
AFP previously debunked videos that falsely claimed to show Chinese people asserting that specific Korean buildings and culture originated from China here and here.
Screenshots of the false YouTube videos, captured on August 5, 2023
Links to the clips were also posted on Facebook here and here.
Comments suggest many users believed the clips showed genuine questions asked to Klopp.
“These reporters show why China is hated around the world,” wrote one user.
Another said: “Why such uneducated questions? Klopp shouldn’t even have answered them.”
But the clips were edited to insert these questions, and the subtitles do not accurately reflect Klopp’s remarks.
First clip
The first clip, shared on July 10, begins with a question posed to Klopp that the Korean-language subtitles say begins with: “Kim Min-jae is a Chinese player who is due to transfer to Munich…”
Kim Min-jae is a South Korean international who joined German champions Bayern Munich on July 18.
While the clip’s Korean-language subtitles state Klopp interrupted by saying “You claim this and that is Chinese. Then am I Chinese too?”, he in fact says “Look, I really don’t like this. I know exactly what you want to do. I said what I said, do with it what you want.”
Story continues
A keyword search on Google led to a corresponding video of Klopp’s post-match press conference from February 2018, after his side drew with Tottenham (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and footage of the post-match conference (right):
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and footage of the post-match conference (right)
The clip corresponds to a section that begins at the video’s 9:38 mark, which shows Klopp was asked a question that begins with: “You said the opposition wants to go down and cause these kinds of problems, did you think Spurs were trying…”
A transcript of the press conference, published by the football website football.london, also shows Klopp’s comments were unrelated to Kim, China or South Korea (archived link).
Second clip
The second clip, shared on July 15, starts with another reporter supposedly asking Klopp: “Napoli won the last Serie A title. Many people are excited about Kim Min-jae’s performance. I think Kim Min-jae seems to be a useless centre-back. I don’t get it, why is he overrated compared with Chinese player Wu Lei?”
Wu Lei is a Chinese footballer who plays for Shanghai Port (archived link).
“That’s an embarrassing question”, Klopp responds, but the Korean subtitles claim he said: “Kim’s amazing performances led his team to the league title.”
A keyword search on Google led to a corresponding clip, from a pre-match press conference in September 2022, before Liverpool’s match with Napoli (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and footage from the press conference from The Guardian newspaper (right):
Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and footage from the press conference from The Guardian newspaper (right)
The footage shows Klopp being asked whether he thinks Naples is a dangerous city.
Klopp did respond by calling the question “embarrassing”, but he did not mention Kim.
Klopp’s response was covered at the time by multiple news organisations, including Sky News and PA Media (archived links here and here).
Third clip
Korean-language subtitles at the beginning of the third clip, shared on July 20, claim a reporter asked Klopp: “I think Wu Lei is the greatest forward in the world. I heard you had financial difficulties, is this why you’re not recruiting Wu Lei?”
Klopp appears to be annoyed by the question, and subtitles claim he responds with: “You were part of 5,999 of my press conferences, and every time you ask the same question about Wu Lei.”
But a keyword search on Google found Klopp was responding to a question about transfers ahead of Liverpool’s match against Brighton in January 2023, as seen in this YouTube video of the press conference (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and the corresponding video published on YouTube (right):
Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and the corresponding video published on YouTube (right)
Klopp was irritated by a question about his club’s transfer activity and said he did not want to go over the situation, according to Eurosport (archived link). He did not refer to either Wu or China.
Fourth clip
In the fourth clip, shared on July 27, a “Chinese reporter” can be heard telling Klopp that Wu “is the best player in the world”.
Klopp is shown laughing and then saying: “We can stop the interview because I only want to speak with people who have a little bit of understanding of football.”
But Klopp was not reacting to the comment about Wu.
The clip was taken from a post-match interview after Klopp’s team drew with rivals Everton in December 2017 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and the corresponding video published by Sky Sports (right):
Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and the corresponding video published by Sky Sports (right)
The exchange at the video’s 2:24 mark — showing Klopp disagreeing with a Sky Sports reporter about a penalty — was also reported by British newspapers, including The Express and The Evening Standard (archived links here and here). There is no mention of Klopp discussing either Wu or China.
