Kylian Mbappe has opened up on how close he came to signing for Liverpool as a teenager, admitting he turned down his mother's wishes to pursue his dream of starring for Paris Saint-Germain instead.
The Real Madrid and France forward, now 27, revealed that Liverpool made a serious attempt to sign him back in 2016 when he was just 18 and playing for Monaco in Ligue 1. Speaking to The Athletic, Mbappe explained that his mother had been particularly taken with the idea of him playing under then-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.
"I was close to [joining] Liverpool. The favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there," Mbappe said. However, he ultimately chose a different path, driven by a desire to prove himself in his home city. "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 added.
According to Mbappe, his mother remained a persistent advocate for a move to Merseyside throughout the process. "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'," he recalled.
In a sign of how seriously the family considered the move, Mbappe's mother travelled to Liverpool herself as part of the early negotiations, immersing herself in the club's atmosphere before making any decisions. "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'," Mbappe said, describing her impressions.
Her visit to Anfield left a lasting impression. "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," Mbappe explained.
Klopp, who discussed the pursuit while working as a pundit for Magenta TV during the 2026 World Cup, offered his own account of the lengths Liverpool went to in trying to convince the Mbappe family. According to the former Reds boss, the club arranged an elaborate journey involving a flight from Blackpool to Nice, where the family then boarded a private jet fitted with multiple rooms for further discussions.
"We really went all out. Then we flew around in a circle, talked with the family, ate good food," Klopp said, adding that the unusual flight pattern was designed to keep the meeting discreet and avoid public attention. Despite the extensive effort, the talks ultimately came to nothing. "We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris," Klopp said.
Reflecting on the episode, Mbappe acknowledged the almost surreal nature of the story but stood by his eventual decision. "It's a funny story," he 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."
Mbappe went on to join PSG initially on loan, with the move later becoming permanent in a deal worth 180 million euros (£165.7m). He spent seven years at the Parc des Princes, establishing himself as the club's all-time leading scorer before departing for Real Madrid in 2024, where he continues his career today.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.