Jürgen Klopp has defended his decision to lead the Red Bull group of football clubs, saying he “didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes” after his decision sparked a backlash from fans of his former teams in Germany.

Klopp will take over as the drinks company’s global football director from January in what was widely seen as a surprise move. It will be his first job after leaving Liverpool at the end of last season.

“I didn’t want to step on anyone, definitely not, and I personally love all my former clubs,” Klopp said in an interview published Wednesday on a podcast hosted by former Real Madrid and Germany midfielder Toni Kroos.

Klopp suggested that any decision he made to coach another club would also have disappointed some fans.

“I really don’t know what exactly I could have done to make everyone happy,” he said.

Red Bull, and especially its Leipzig team, are widely resented by many German soccer fans, who see the drinks company as an unwanted corporate presence trying to buy success.

Fans of Klopp’s former clubs, such as Borussia Dortmund, have criticized the move, and Mainz fans held banners this month expressing their disappointment and questioning whether he was “crazy”.

Klopp spent 18 years at Mainz as a player and coach before joining Dortmund in 2008, where he led the club to two Bundesliga titles and the Champions League final.

Klopp said he had never viewed Red Bull’s involvement in football “so critically” and suggested it played an important role in bringing top-level club football back to the former East Germany with the Leipzig project.

Klopp previously said he planned to take a “long break” from football after leaving Liverpool, where he managed his last game in May after nine years at the club.

“I’m 57 years old, so I can still work for a couple more years, but I don’t see myself on the sidelines (as a coach) for the moment,” he said. “But I was always clear that I wasn’t going to do anything at all. And then this story with Red Bull came into play, and for me it is exceptional.”

Klopp said he saw his role at Red Bull primarily as an “advisor” working alongside coaches at clubs backed by the drinks giant. “I always had the feeling that the coach is very, very often the loneliest person in the club,” he said.

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