Kylian Mbappé's Near Move to Liverpool: Klopp's Pitch in 2017
Kylian Mbappé has revealed just how close he came to becoming a Liverpool player as a teenager – with his mother desperate to see him in red and Jurgen Klopp flying out to make the pitch of a lifetime.
The France captain, speaking to The Athletic, recalled the summer of 2017, when he was still tearing up Ligue 1 with Monaco and weighing up the first huge decision of his career. Paris Saint-Germain wanted him. So did Liverpool. And Klopp did not sit back and hope.
The German coach boarded a private jet and met Mbappé and his mother and agent, Fayza Lamari, over the south of France. The aim was simple: convince the most exciting young forward in Europe to choose Anfield over Paris.
"It was while I was playing in Monaco. I had to take a decision. And yes, I was close to Liverpool," Mbappé said. "My mum was a big fan of Jurgen Klopp and the favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there."
At 18, though, Mbappé’s heart was pulling him somewhere else.
"I didn't listen because I wanted to play in my city, Paris," he explained. "I didn't want to leave my country before I was someone. But yes, my mum was always saying 'Liverpool – you're going to be there, playing at Anfield, it's going to be insane for you.' I was like, 'OK!'"
Lamari went further than just voicing an opinion from afar. She travelled to Liverpool during the talks, wanting to feel the place for herself. The club, and especially Anfield, left a mark.
"She was like, 'It's a wonderful club, everybody's so kind, it's a family club, a big club,'" Mbappé remembered.
"She went to Anfield and fell in love with it. She watched a few games alone, to feel the atmosphere, because she wanted to imagine me in this stadium.
"All the time we were talking. [I would say:] 'What do you think, Mum?'. She'd say, 'For me, you have to go to Liverpool'. I said, 'OK, OK, OK!' because Jurgen Klopp was an amazing manager. I met him and had a wonderful relationship with him. I had big respect for him."
Klopp has already lifted the lid on that extraordinary recruitment attempt. Speaking to Magenta TV earlier this year, he joked that the private jet summit was "the most expensive non-transfer we ever made" – a line that underlines just how serious Liverpool were about landing him.
The club even flew from Blackpool to Nice for the meeting, a detail that underpins the scale of their effort. But the journey, and Lamari’s enthusiasm, could not quite tilt the balance.
Mbappé chose PSG, initially on loan for the 2017-18 season before making the move permanent a year later. He stayed in Paris until his long-awaited switch to Real Madrid in 2024, becoming the face of French football in the process.
"In the end I took the decision to go to PSG because for me, born and raised in Paris, there was no better feeling than to show I could be a star in my home town," he said.
Liverpool were left wondering what might have been. Paris got their superstar. And the private jet to the south of France became one of the great sliding-door moments of modern football.
