Kylian Mbappé Reveals Near Transfer to 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 turned down his mother’s wish to see him under the Anfield lights.
Back then, he was an 18-year-old phenomenon at Monaco. Liverpool saw the explosion coming and moved early. They didn’t just call. They rolled out the red carpet.
Jurgen Klopp, still building his Liverpool project at the time, authorised a full-scale charm offensive. The club arranged a private jet, laid on food, and brought Mbappé and his family in for talks as they tried to convince him that Merseyside, not Paris, should be his next step.
Speaking to The Athletic, Mbappé admitted the pull was real – especially for one member of the family.
“I was close to [joining] Liverpool. The favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there,” he said.
His mother, a “big fan” of Klopp, pushed hard for Anfield. She flew to Liverpool for what Mbappé described as the “first step” of negotiations. This wasn’t a token visit. She went into the city, toured the stadium, met club staff, and soaked in the surroundings.
“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’,” Mbappé recalled.
Then came the moment that sealed her emotional connection.
She went to Anfield on her own, sat among the supporters and watched games just to feel the place, to picture her son in that red shirt, sprinting towards the Kop.
“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,” he said.
Liverpool’s push didn’t stop there. Klopp later revealed on Magenta TV, while working as a pundit at the 2026 World Cup, how far the club went to try and pull off the deal.
A flight was arranged from Blackpool to Nice. Waiting there: the Mbappé family and a private jet “with five rooms or something”, as Klopp put it. Liverpool wanted privacy, no cameras, no leaks, just time to talk.
“We really went all out. Then we flew around in a circle, talked with the family, ate good food,” Klopp said.
They stayed in the air, circling, talking, selling the project. No airport lounges, no hotel lobbies, no prying eyes. Just Klopp, the Liverpool pitch, and the Mbappé family, suspended between two futures.
“We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris,” Klopp added, with a wry smile.
Mbappé laughs about it now. “It’s a funny story,” he said. But behind the humour sat a decision that shaped modern European football.
“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,” he explained.
For a boy born and raised in the French capital, the lure of home was stronger than even his mother’s Anfield dream.
“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.”
The deal that followed was enormous. Mbappé joined Paris St-Germain initially on loan from Monaco, with an option to buy for 180m euros (£165.7m). He stayed seven years, became PSG’s all-time leading scorer, and turned into the face of French football before finally making the move to Real Madrid in 2024.
Liverpool were left with a story, not a signing. An almost-transfer that might have rewritten their recent history. Mbappé was left with medals, records, and the career he wanted – but also the memory of a mother who once fell in love with Anfield and a club that tried everything to bring him there.
