Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.
Kylian Mbappe has revealed he was “close” to joining Liverpool in 2017, after his mother and agent, Fayza Lamari, “fell in love” with the club during negotiations with Jurgen Klopp.
Nine years ago, Mbappe was one of the hottest properties in world football after bursting onto the scene with Monaco, having registered 40 goal involvements in just 60 appearances for the club (27 goals, 13 assists).
Mbappe ultimately joined PSG in a loan deal that became permanent the following year, plundering 256 goals in 308 outings for the Parisiens and winning 15 trophies, including six Ligue 1 titles.
He then, of course, moved to Real Madrid in 2024, and though he has scored 94 goals in just 111 games for the Spanish giants, he is yet to win the Champions League, LaLiga, or the Copa del Rey.
While working as a German television pundit at this year’s World Cup, at which Mbappe became the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 22 goals, Klopp reflected on Liverpool’s pursuit of the then-teenage sensation.
Klopp disclosed he accompanied several Liverpool officials on a private plane from Blackpool to Nice, where they met with Mbappe and his mother to discuss a potential transfer.
And on Tuesday, in an interview with The Athletic, Mbappe revealed just how close he came to moving to Anfield.
“It was while I was playing in Monaco. I had to take a decision,” Mbappe said. “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, in 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, ‘Okay!’
“She went there for the first step of negotiations. She went to the city, she went to 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.’
“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. She’d say, ‘For me, you have to go to Liverpool’. I said, ‘Okay, okay, okay’, because Jurgen Klopp was an amazing manager. I met him and had a wonderful relationship with him. I had big respect for him.”
Reflecting on Klopp’s attempts to explain Liverpool’s project, Mbappe added: “I said, ‘You don’t need to convince me. You’re Jurgen Klopp, it’s Liverpool, a great club, so if I’m here, I have some interest. But I have other things, other projects, that are also good.’
“I said to him, ‘Whatever decision I take is going to be a good decision, because we are talking about some of the biggest clubs in the world.’
“It’s a funny story. But 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 hometown.”
Mbappe will be in action for France during the international break, with Les Bleus’ first game under Zinedine Zidane pitting them against Turkiye on Friday, in the Nations League.
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