Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has helped spearhead proposals to introduce Padel courts to Wavertree Sports Park in the city, and it has had lots of positive backing.
During the twilight years of his time at The Reds, Klopp was often seen playing Padel with assistant Pep Lijnders as well as some of the players including Thiago Alcantara and Mo Salah. The then manager of Liverpool also had Padel courts installed at the training ground as well as being part of a team that opened the Mallorca Padel Club, where he regularly visits. The Germans growing love for the sport eventually led to him establishing his own Padel venue in Berlin in 2022 with his son Marc, simply called Padel FC. Klopp himself has been quoted saying
‘‘Besides football the best game I ever played’’ and that in recent years he has become ‘’really addicted’’ to the sport
The centre in the German capital hosts seven indoor courts and two outdoor courts and has been a huge success since its opening three years ago.
What is Padel and why is it so popular in the UK?
Padel is a relatively new sport, which was first played in 1969 in Mexico. It is a racquet sport that is seen as a mixture of Squash and Tennis, with a scoring system similar to the latter. It is mainly played in a doubles format, with players serving underarm using a ball slightly smaller than a tennis ball. The players are enclosed by glass walls, which they can use to help them earn points by bouncing it off the sides. After a slow rise in popularity, in 2005, the Padel Pro Tour (PPT) was established which has gone from strength to strength in the last 20 years. The prize money from the major tournaments such as the Premier Padel Major have also increased in recent years, reaching €1.2million in 2025, up from €1million the previous year.
Primarily, Padel has been the most popular in European countries such as Spain and Portugal, where more people play it over Tennis, with an estimated five million players and over 20,000 courts in Spain. An increasing number of British people were exposed to the sport whilst on holiday in places like the Costa del Sol in the early 2000s, which led to an increase of popularity and demand for the sport in the UK. As a result, the UK Padel Federation was founded in 2011. Padel isn’t the most athletic sport, it is easy to learn and can be played by the majority of age groups. According to the LTA Padel website, over 400,000 brits now play the sport as of 2024, an increase from 129,000 in 2023, displaying the desire the UK audience are showing for the game. There are now 893 Padel courts across 300 venues in the UK.
The participants of the sport in the UK has excelled in the last five years (Graphic by Tom Day)
What does the proposal include?
The proposal has been submitted by Pegasus development group, who, along with Klopp, his son Marc, former professional footballer Bradley Orr, local businessman Carl Spellman and Open Media’s Mike Smith have enquired about changing underused tennis courts at Wavertree Sports Park into nine state-of-the-art Padel Courts, with six outdoor courts and three sheltered. On top of this, the proposal includes adding a café, retail space, changing rooms and social areas.
The redevelopment will also go along with Liverpool’s net zero ambition as it will also include EV charging points, solar panels and air source heating. For the beginning stages of the planning process, the feedback was majorly positive, with 98% of the respondents supporting the plan. With such a popular figure like Jurgen Klopp at the head of this, much of the population of the city would agree with the plan.
The idea for Wavertree also would benefit the local area across a variety of sectors, such as giving more people opportunities for jobs at the sports park, improve wellbeing both mentally and physically as well as increase community health targets.
With Liverpool forever being known as a footballing city, this proposal could begin a new era of sport in Liverpool, as Padel could start to broaden the horizon of sporting diversity in the city.
