Kylian Mbappé's Near Transfer to Liverpool: What Could Have Been

Kylian Mbappé has revealed just how close Liverpool came to pulling off the transfer that would have changed everything.

Back in 2017, he was the teenage phenomenon ripping through defences for Monaco, the most coveted young forward in Europe. Every giant wanted him. Liverpool were not just in the race – for a brief moment, they were right at the front of it.

A private jet, a secret pitch, and a bold plan

Jurgen Klopp did not settle for a phone call or a quiet meeting at Melwood. He went big.

Liverpool arranged a clandestine summit on a five-room private jet, a flying boardroom designed for one purpose: convince Mbappé that Anfield was the place to become a superstar. Klopp laid out his sporting project in detail, circling in the sky while he spoke.

“I remember we were on the plane and we were turning around and around in the air while he was explaining his project,” Mbappé told The Athletic. The message from Klopp was clear: Liverpool, under his guidance, would be built around players like him.

Mbappé’s response summed up the scale of the decision he faced. “You don't need to convince me. You're Jurgen Klopp, it's Liverpool, a great club, so of course if I'm here, I have some interest. But I have other things, other projects, that are also good.”

He knew he could not really lose. “Whatever decision I take is going to be a good decision because we are talking about some of the biggest clubs in the world.”

Liverpool’s unlikely ally: Mbappé’s mother

If Klopp was Liverpool’s most powerful salesman, he had unexpected support.

The strongest push towards the Premier League came from Mbappé’s mother. She travelled alone to Merseyside for the first steps of the talks, walking the city, going to games, feeling the place for herself.

“She went to the stadium, she met the people,” Mbappé recalled. “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.”

Those conversations at home became relentless. “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.”

For Liverpool’s hierarchy, this was as close as it gets. The family liked the club. The player respected the manager. The project made sense. The Premier League beckoned.

The decision: home over history

Then came the turning point.

Despite Liverpool’s effort, the private jet, the pitch, the family’s admiration for Anfield, Mbappé chose Paris. Emotion won.

He joined PSG first on loan, then permanently for €180 million – a fee that underlined the scale of the player Liverpool had almost landed. For Mbappé, the choice went beyond money or league.

“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 to imagine what might have been: Mbappé in front of the Kop, Klopp building his attack around one of the most explosive forwards of his generation.

From near-miss to global icon

The path he chose hardly weakened his rise.

In Paris, Mbappé became the face of PSG’s dominance, stacking domestic trophies and goals while turning into a global superstar. On the international stage, he exploded even faster.

He won the World Cup with France in 2018 as a teenager, announcing himself on the biggest stage with the swagger of a player who already knew he belonged there. By the 2026 tournament, he had gone even further, overtaking Miroslav Klose and Lionel Messi to become the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer, even though France fell to eventual champions Spain in the semi-finals.

The move Liverpool could not quite finish had turned into one of the defining careers of modern football.

A new chapter in white, and a question that lingers

In 2024, Mbappé finally left France, sealing his long-anticipated transfer to Real Madrid and closing the PSG chapter that began with that fateful decision in 2017.

Liverpool have since written their own history under Klopp without him, winning the Champions League and the Premier League with a different front line. Yet the story of the private jet, the mother who fell for Anfield, and the superstar who almost chose Merseyside now sits in the “what if” file of modern football.

How different would the last decade have looked if Mbappé had listened to his mother and walked out at Anfield in red instead of staying in Paris and eventually turning up in white?