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Jurgen Klopp set to seal Liverpool manager deal this week, sources say

Liverpool plan to hire former Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp by the end of the week, sources confirmed to ESPN FC.

Klopp, who left Borussia Dortmund in May to take a break from football, is the Reds' first choice to replace Brendan Rodgers, sources have said.

Multiple media reports on Monday night said Klopp is interested in leading Liverpool, with only compensation negotiations still to come, and sources confirmed to ESPN FC that the club expects the 48-year-old to sign a three-year contract as early as Friday.

The BBC reported that talks with Klopp's representatives are "progressing well," while the Daily Telegraph said remaining negotiations are a formality.

According to The Guardian, Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon is leading the negotiations for Liverpool and is "increasingly confident" Klopp will sign on quickly.

On Monday, German newspaper Bild tracked Klopp down at a coaching conference in Bayer Leverkusen's Bay Arena.

Approached by a reporter from the paper outside the ground, Klopp said there was "nothing to say" with regard to the Liverpool job before making his way to the parking lot.

Klopp took over a mid-table Dortmund side in 2008 and led them to two Bundesliga titles and a Champions League final during his seven years with the club.

Rodgers was sacked on Sunday, with Liverpool lying 10th in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with neighbours Everton at Goodison Park.

Hiring Klopp by Friday would allow him a week to prepare for Liverpool's next match, away to Tottenham on Oct. 17.

Ian Ayre, the Reds' chief executive, is working closely with American owners Fenway Sports Group to get a top-class manager in place quickly.

Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen said he believes a hungry Klopp would "be the best fit" to replace Rodgers at the Anfield helm.

"If indeed these are the two main men [Ancelotti and Klopp], I would think that Klopp is the better fit for Liverpool at this time," Owen told Sportlobster. "I think that a younger and potentially hungrier manager in Jurgen Klopp would be the best fit for Liverpool in their current predicament."

Former defender Mark Lawrenson also backed Klopp to take the reins as he wrote in his BBC Sport column: "Whoever it is will have to buy into the mindset of the American owners -- they want success, but their model is to try to get that by signing younger players they can train up and, sometimes, sell on.

"Jurgen Klopp is the favourite to get the job and he would fit the bill. At Borussia Dortmund he built a team that were in your face, with good players that he was making better, but he also knew he would have to sell one or even two every year."

ESPN FC correspondent Mike Whalley contributed to this report.

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