Kylian Mbappé's Near Transfer to Liverpool: A Mother's Wish
Kylian Mbappé has revealed just how close he came to swapping Monaco for Liverpool as a teenager – with his mother desperate to see him walk out at Anfield instead of the Parc des Princes.
Speaking to The Athletic, the France captain detailed a whirlwind summer of 2017, when an 18-year-old prodigy suddenly had Europe at his feet and a decision to make that would shape the next decade of his career.
Klopp, a private jet and a hard sell
At the heart of the story is a surreal scene: Jürgen Klopp, Mbappé and his mother and agent, Fayza Lamari, on a private jet over the south of France, the Liverpool manager doing everything he can to lure the most exciting teenager in world football to Merseyside.
"It was while I was playing in Monaco. I had to take a decision. And yes, I was close to Liverpool," Mbappé said. "My mum was a big fan of Jürgen Klopp and the favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there."
Klopp laid out his vision. Liverpool were on the rise, Anfield was waiting, and the Premier League stage seemed built for Mbappé’s explosive pace and ruthless finishing. The meeting left a mark on both sides. Earlier this year, Klopp told German outlet Magenta TV that the encounter was "the most expensive non-transfer we ever made".
The admiration clearly ran both ways. "Jürgen Klopp was an amazing manager," Mbappé said. "I met him and had a wonderful relationship with him. I had big respect for him."
A mother in love with Anfield
If Klopp needed an ally, he had one in Lamari. Mbappé’s mother travelled to Liverpool during the negotiations and, as her son tells it, she fell hard for the club.
"She was like, 'It's a wonderful club, everybody's so kind, it's a family club, a big club,'" he recalled.
She didn’t just rely on boardroom impressions. Lamari went to Anfield on her own, sat in the stands, and watched games to soak in the atmosphere, trying to picture her son under the floodlights, 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," Mbappé said.
The family conversations were relentless. "All the time we were talking. [I would say:] 'What do you think, Mum?'. She'd say, 'For me, you have to go to Liverpool'. I said, 'OK, OK, OK!'"
Liverpool, backed by Klopp’s charm and Lamari’s enthusiasm, were right in the race. Anfield had seduced the Mbappé camp. The club had done the hard yards, even flying from Blackpool to Nice for that fateful jet meeting.
And yet, it wasn’t enough.
Paris pulls him home
When the moment of truth arrived, emotion and identity cut through the noise. The teenager who had the football world chasing him chose home.
"I didn't listen because I wanted to play in my city, Paris," Mbappé admitted. "I didn't want to leave my country before I was someone."
The pull of Paris proved stronger than Klopp’s pitch or his mother’s preference. Mbappé joined Paris Saint-Germain, initially on loan for the 2017-18 season before making the move permanent the following year.
"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.
From there, the story is well known: titles, goals, a World Cup, and a long-running saga that eventually carried him from PSG to Real Madrid in 2024. But the revelation adds a striking twist to his journey. For a brief spell in 2017, Liverpool were not just an admirer or an outside contender. They were close. Very close.
Close enough that Mbappé’s mother could see him at Anfield.
Close enough that Klopp still remembers the cost of the one that got away.
