Kylian Mbappé Reveals Close Call with Liverpool in 2016

Kylian Mbappé has lifted the lid on just how close he came to becoming a Liverpool player in 2016 – and how he ignored his mother’s wish for him to light up Anfield.

The France captain, now at Real Madrid, revealed that Liverpool made a serious move for him when he was an 18-year-old phenomenon at Monaco, only for him to choose Paris St-Germain and the lure of his home city.

“I was close to [joining] Liverpool,” Mbappé told The Athletic. “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.”

His mother, though, had already pictured the scene.

“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’.”

Klopp’s grand pitch

Liverpool’s interest was no token enquiry. Jurgen Klopp and the club hierarchy went all out.

Klopp has previously described how Liverpool arranged a private jet and a full hospitality charm offensive for Mbappé and his family as they tried to beat Europe’s elite to his signature.

Speaking as a pundit on Magenta TV during the 2026 World Cup, the former Liverpool manager recalled a clandestine operation that underlined just how highly the club rated the teenager.

A flight was organised from Blackpool to Nice, where, as Klopp put it, “the entire Mbappé family boarded a private jet with five rooms or something”.

“We really went all out. Then we flew around in a circle, talked with the family, ate good food,” Klopp said.

They did not want to be seen in public thrashing out a deal. The plane became their meeting room, their dining table, their negotiating space.

“We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris,” Klopp added, summing up the futility of Liverpool’s grand gesture in one dry line.

A mother in love with Anfield

Mbappé’s mother, though, was not easily swayed away from Liverpool. In fact, she did her own due diligence on Merseyside.

Mbappé explained that she travelled to England for what he called the “first step” of 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’,” he said.

Then came the detail that will sting Liverpool supporters most.

“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.”

While she was picturing her son in red, racing towards the Kop, Mbappé’s own vision never left Paris.

Paris over Anfield

For all the wooing, all the flights, all the emotion, the decision stayed rooted in something simple: home.

“It’s a funny story,” Mbappé said. “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.”

He joined PSG initially on loan from Monaco, in a deal that included an option to buy for 180m euros (£165.7m). The move would define the next phase of his career.

Mbappé spent seven years in Paris, becoming PSG’s all-time leading scorer and the face of the club, before finally sealing his long-anticipated move to Real Madrid in 2024.

Liverpool were left with a story, a near-miss, and the thought of what Anfield might have looked like with Mbappé in full flight down the left.