EXCLUSIVE: Jonathan Klinsmann on Growing up as the Son of Football Royalty and Cesena’s Serie A Dreams

“It’s a little bit annoying,” Jonathan Klinsmann admits with a smile when asked about his father’s proficiency in Italian. “He speaks perfect Italian.”

Bearing a famous surname is notoriously one of the most delicate aspects of professional sports. Even before you deal with the often gratuitous claims of nepotism, expectations are heightened and scrutiny near-ubiquitous. 

When your father is a player of Klinsmann’s pedigree, the bar is set higher still. But for the Cesena goalkeeper the only pressure came from having to improve his Italian. 

“I think now is the point where we [him and his dad] can try to start speaking,” he tells Destination Calcio. 

“I think up until now it was just impossible. He would say something and I would just have no idea what’s going on. 

“But I think now it’ll be fun to start speaking Italian to him.”

Klinsmann’s father, Jurgen, perfected his Italian over three seasons at Inter Milan, where he joined compatriots Lothar Mattahus and Andreas Brehme in the summer of 1989 and won the UEFA Cup two years later.

Of his 282 career goals, 40 came in 123 appearances in all competitions for the Nerazzurri, a remarkable record in an era when Serie A was by some distance the hardest league in the world.

Klinsmann’s greatest achievement came on Italian soil but in West Germany colours, as he scored three goals to help his country win the 1990 World Cup.

Six years later, he captained his nation to its first major trophy since the fall of the Berlin Wall as Die Mannschaft beat Czech Republic 2-1 in extra time at Wembley in the final of Euro 1996.

His dad may have been one of the greatest strikers in the world for over a decade, but it took Klinsmann time to process his greatness. 

Growing up, football was simply Jurgen’s job, just like some of his friends’ fathers may be train drivers, bank clerks or bakers.

“I think when I was young, there wasn’t too much to it,” he explains when Destination Calcio meets him at Cesena training ground on a cold November day in the Emilia-Romagna hills. 

“I didn’t really understand any of it. He played football and that was it. Then obviously, once you get older, you begin to understand, I guess, how good he was.”

Did the realisation of his dad’s status lead to pressure?

“It was a natural pressure that you always have. I guess you get used to it at a certain point and you learn to use it as well,” he says.

“Obviously, to use his expertise and his experience and his knowledge of the game obviously helped tremendously. 

“For me, it was primarily positive. Obviously, a lot of people will ask about the pressure. Yeah, there was pressure, but it also helps you. 

“It focuses you. You can’t slack off. You can’t be lazy. You can’t do any of those things. Ultimately, that does push you more. It does help you.”

The key difference between Klinsmann and his father is that while Jurgen earned his living as a goalscorer, Jonathan is tasked with keeping goals out.

And so far he has done a fine job of it too, keeping two clean sheets in five appearances since breaking into the first XI at the end of October.

Cesena have picked up eight points out of a possible 15 with Klinsmann in goal and headed into December fifth in Serie B, 12 points off league leaders Sassuolo and two adrift of fourth-placed Cremonese.

It is a remarkable run of form for a newly-promoted side, even more so when considering that Michele Mignani is only five months into his reign after replacing Domenico Toscano, who led the Seahorses back to Serie B for the first time since 2018.

Following a well-trodden path in Italian football, Cesena went bankrupt and folded the following season, before restarting from Serie D – the fourth tier of the Calcio pyramid. 

After seven years of turmoil, the Bianconeri are firmly looking up rather than over their shoulders and returning to Serie A for the first time in a decade is firmly the focus.

But Klinsmann and his teammates aren’t getting carried away despite their excellent start to the season.

“Serie B is a league where anyone can be anyone on any day,” he explains.  

“So you have to focus on the game in front of you. You can’t worry about the next one after that. 

“Any team can really come out and play well on any day. So I think that’s one of the things about the league that I enjoy. It’s a fight every time you go out on the field.”

Born in Germany, Klinsmann moved to the USA when his father relocated across the Atlantic, and joined Cesena from Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS on a free transfer in February. 

Italy is the latest stop on an itinerant career that has taken him from the USA to Switzerland and Germany. 

Just like his father, who played in the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Premier League, Klinsmann isn’t afraid to broaden his horizons.  Did his father have any tips to succeed abroad?

“I think the biggest thing he said was to learn the language,” he explains. “And he said that when I moved to Germany as well, and I picked it up. But I think it’s just so important. 

“Apart from working your ass off and training and showing the coaches that you deserve to play, that you’re not content with not playing, his biggest piece of advice was to learn the language. And I think that, obviously, is huge.”

Speaking to Klinsmann, you get the sense he’s heeded the advice and that he is fully comfortable in his new surroundings.

He takes Italian lessons with a group of teammates including Sydney Van Hooijdonk, the son of former Nottingham Forest and Celtic star Pierre, and is enthusiastic about his adventure.

“We have a fun group of guys right now going to take lessons. It’s a good time,” he says with a smile.

“The food is fantastic here and the culture as well. 

“It’s been really nice. The people have been amazing, our fans as well. It’s been very, very positive. Very, very good.”

A self-confessed fan of Italian food, Klinsmann admits neither his nor his dad’s talents on the pitch translate to the kitchen.

The two may not discuss the vagaries of spaghetti carbonara anytime soon, but they are football obsessives.

And Klinsmann senior is in a unique position to provide advice to his son, having been both a world-class player and having managed at the highest level – he led Germany to third place at the 2006 World Cup on home soil and took the USA to the Round of 16 eight years later.

So, does the former Germany captain see football through the eyes of a player or of a manager?

“That’s interesting because we will talk after every game and he will give me his striker point of view on certain things,” Klinsmann says thoughtfully.   

“Let’s say I concede a goal and he will say, ‘I think maybe this or that worked or didn’t work’. 

“He’ll speak to me from the eyes of a striker. And then obviously, if it involves the entire team and all that stuff, he can talk about it as a manager as well. It just depends on the situation.”

As Cesena players file into the training ground and get ready for the afternoon session, you can only wonder whether Klinsmann’s teammates ever enquire about his dad.

“Yeah, sometimes. I don’t think that’s the thing [to do], but they are obviously aware of his reputation,” he says.

As was the British media, when he arrived at Tottenham in the summer of 1994 and proceeded to celebrate his first goal by diving on the turf – a not-so-subtle nod to those who questioned his penchant for going to ground too easily.

“I’d love to recreate that celebration,” Klinsmann says with a chuckle and you get the feeling he’s been dead serious about it.

For now, Cesena will be hoping he’s not needed at the wrong end of the pitch. He has plenty of diving to do in between the posts.

Watch the full DCTV interview with Jonathan Klinsmann: