Mbappé Reveals How Close Liverpool Came to Signing Him in 2017, Thanks to His Mother

Some transfer stories are told through numbers and clauses. Others are told through a mother sitting alone in the stands during a match, trying to "picture" her son down on the field. This is one of the latter. Kylian Mbappé has just revealed, in an interview with The Athletic, the most intimate chapter of that 2017 summer when Liverpool came far closer to signing him than anyone realized.

The Frenchman, who was 18 at the time and the biggest sensation coming out of Monaco, admitted he was "close to Liverpool" before eventually settling on PSG. And the reason wasn't purely about soccer: his mother had genuinely fallen for the club.

"My mom was a big fan of Jürgen Klopp, and Liverpool was her favorite destination for me. She wanted me to go there," Mbappé said. According to him, she traveled to the city as part of the early stages of the negotiation, toured the stadium and spoke with people from the club before he had made any decision himself.

She went to Anfield and fell in love. She watched a few matches alone, just to feel the atmosphere, because she wanted to picture me in that stadium.Kylian Mbappé

The player admitted that throughout the process his mother kept pushing the idea: "Liverpool, you're going to be there, playing at Anfield, it's going to be incredible for you." And he, in his own words, would simply respond with an "OK!" every time the subject came up.

The Flight in Circles That Klopp Confirmed

Part of the story had already come out before, told by Jürgen Klopp himself during the World Cup in his role as a commentator for Magenta TV, and it lines up perfectly with Mbappé's version. The then Liverpool manager flew with part of his coaching staff from Blackpool to Nice to meet with the striker's family, who welcomed them aboard a private jet "with five rooms."

Klopp described that whole operation as "the most expensive non-transfer" he was ever involved in at the club. "Liverpool really put on a show," the German said. "We just flew in circles, talked with the family and had a delicious meal. We couldn't be seen. We flew in circles, it was great, and then he went to Paris!"

Mbappé recalled that same flight from his own point of view: "I remember we were on the plane, just going round and round in the air while he explained his project to me." And then he offered a line that sums up pretty well the confidence he already carried at that age: he told Klopp he didn't need to convince him, that he knew perfectly well he was talking to one of the greatest coaches in the world, but that he also had other equally good projects on the table.

In the end, the decision went another way. "Born and raised in Paris, there was no better feeling than proving I could be a star in my own city," the striker explained about why he ultimately chose PSG over Liverpool.

That move was first sealed as a loan with a mandatory purchase option worth 180 million euros, a staggering figure for European soccer at the time. Mbappé had already touched on part of this story back in 2022, though back then he only mentioned that he had seriously considered PSG and Real Madrid, without getting into the role Liverpool played in the negotiation. Years later, now a Real Madrid player since 2024, the man at the center of it all has finally filled in the rest of the puzzle from that summer that could have changed the course of his career.