Kylian Mbappe has opened up about the reason why he decided not to join Liverpool in 2016 – despite Jurgen Klopp winning over his mother.
The Real Madrid star came close to signing for the Reds as a teenager, with Klopp previously revealing secret meetings and Mbappe’s mother pushing for him to move to Merseyside.
But he instead signed for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and the rest is history.
‘It was while I was playing in Monaco. I had to take a decision,’ Mbappe told The Athletic. ‘And yes, I was close to Liverpool. My mum was a big fan of Jurgen Klopp and the favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there.
‘I didn’t listen because I wanted to play in my city, Paris. 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!”.
‘She went there (for) the first step of the negotiations. She went to the city, the stadium, she met the people. She was like, “It’s a wonderful club, everybody’s so kind, it’s a family club, a big club”.
Kylian Mbappe has revealed how Jurgen Klopp convinced his mother (left) that he should sign for Liverpool
Klopp (left) pulled out all the stops to try and convince Mbappe to join Liverpool in 2016
‘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. “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.’
In a stunning admission earlier this year, Klopp, who was covering the World Cup quarter-final between France and Morocco for German television station Magenta TV, detailed live on air how Mbappe was almost a Liverpool player in 2016.
‘The most expensive non-transfer that we (Liverpool) invested in!’ Klopp recalled pre-match. ‘We flew from Blackpool to Nice. In Nice, the whole Mbappe family got on board a private plane with five rooms or something.
‘We really went big (with the plan). Then we flew around in a circle, talked to the family, ate good food.’
Due to the complexities around tapping up players at rival clubs, Liverpool wanted their recruitment mission to be kept quiet and so did not want to risk landing – so made their pitch in the air.
‘We weren’t allowed to be seen,’ Klopp said. ‘We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris.’
It was a sliding doors moment as Mbappe picked PSG as his next step after Monaco, initially joining on loan before PSG picked up a tab worth £165million.
Mbappe hit superstardom thereafter, winning the World Cup with France in 2018, leading them to the final in 2022 and scoring a hat-trick in that Qatar showpiece. He would go on to join Real Madrid in 2024.
