Sami Hyypiä (born 7 October 1973) is a retired Finnish footballer and current manager of German club Bayer Leverkusen. He last played for German Bundesliga side Bayer 04 Leverkusen and was the captain of the Finland national football team. He joined Leverkusen in summer 2009, ending a ten year spell at Liverpool. On 2 May 2011, Hyypiä announced his intention to retire from professional football at the end of the 2010–11 season in order to take up a coaching role with Bayer Leverkusen.

Hyypiä began his career with Ykkönen side KuMu and soon moved to Veikkausliiga outfit MyPa. He spent four years at the club, helping them win the Finnish Cup in 1992 and 1995. He moved to Willem II Tilburg in 1995 and spent the next four years there. He became the team captain and was nominated their player of the year after helping them qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Hyypiä moved to Liverpool, the team he supported as a child, in a deal worth £2.6 million. He quickly established himself in the first team, partnering Stéphane Henchoz in defence. By 2001, he regularly captained the team and that season Liverpool won a slew of honours, completing a cup treble of the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup, in addition to winning the UEFA Super Cup and FA Community Shield. He became first choice captain in the 2001–02 season and was part of the Football League Cup winning team in 2003. Steven Gerrard superseded him as captain in 2003 but Hyypiä still occasionally captained the side in his absence. Hyypiä won his highest football honour in 2005 as a part of Liverpool's victorious 2004–05 Champions League campaign. He is fondly remembered by many fans as a Liverpool legend.

Jürgen Norbert 'Kloppo' Klopp (born 16 June 1967) is a German former footballer and the current manager of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.

Klopp played his entire senior career for 1. FSV Mainz 05 from 1990 to 2001. He originally played as a striker, before switching to play as a defender in 1995.

Upon his retirement from playing for Mainz 05, Klopp was appointed as the club's manager. He remained as manager for seven years, during which time he led the team to its first appearance in the Bundesliga, and qualification for the 2005–06 UEFA Cup. At the end of the 2006–07 season, Mainz 05 were relegated, but Klopp chose to remain with the club. However, due to the fact that they were not able to achieve promotion, he resigned at the end of the 2007–08 season.

In May 2008, Klopp was approached to become the new manager of Borussia Dortmund, eventually signing a two-year contract at the club, which had finished in a disappointing 13th place under previous manager Thomas Doll. In his first season in charge, Klopp guided Borussia Dortmund to win the DFB-Supercup, defeating German champions Bayern Munich. Klopp took the club to a sixth place finish in his first season in charge, and a fifth place finish in the season after that, before leading the club to successive Bundesliga titles in the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. During the 2011-2012 season, the 81 points accrued by Borussia Dortmund was the greatest points tally ever amassed in Bundesliga history and the 47 points earned in the second half of the season also set a new record. Borussia Dortmund's 25 league wins equalled Bayern Munich's 1972/73 milestone while their 28-league match unbeaten sequence was the best ever recorded in a single German top-flight season. On 12 May 2012, Klopp made Borussia Dortmund history by sealing the club's first ever domestic double, by defeating Bayern Munich 5–2 to win the DFB-Pokal. Klopp described the double as being "better than (he) could have imagined".