Kylian Mbappé: The Liverpool Move That Almost Happened

Kylian Mbappé standing in front of the Kop. It sounds like fantasy. At one point, it was very nearly reality.

Before the World Cup, before the records in Paris, before the white of Real Madrid, Mbappé’s career stood at a crossroads in Monaco. One road led home, to Paris Saint-Germain. The other pointed towards Anfield and Jürgen Klopp.

And at home, there was a very clear opinion.

“My mum's favourite destination was Liverpool; she wanted me to go there,” Mbappé told The Athletic, lifting the lid on a sliding-doors moment in his career.

Back then, the teenager tearing up Ligue 1 had Europe’s elite at his feet. Liverpool pushed hard. Klopp met him, made his case, left a mark.

“There was a time, when I was at Monaco, when I had to make a decision and I was close to joining Liverpool,” Mbappé admitted. “My mum was a big fan of Jürgen Klopp, and he's an amazing manager. I met him and I have a wonderful relationship with him. I have great respect for him.”

The charm offensive from Merseyside clearly worked. The family were convinced. Klopp had won over Mbappé’s mother, and Liverpool offered a project, a manager, and a fanbase that could have turned him into a Premier League icon.

But the decisive voice was always going to be his own.

“I didn't listen to (my mum). I wanted to go to my city, Paris. I wanted to play in my own country. I didn't want to leave my country,” he said.

With that, Liverpool’s dream dissolved. Paris’ came alive.

PSG paid €180 million to prise him from Monaco, a figure that underlined the scale of their bet. Mbappé repaid it with ruthless consistency. Over seven seasons in the capital, he became the club’s all-time leading scorer, racking up 256 goals and 110 assists in 308 appearances, while stacking up domestic trophies in a dominant era for Les Rouge et Bleu.

The numbers tell one story. The what-if tells another.

Liverpool went on to win the Champions League and Premier League under Klopp without him. Mbappé became the face of PSG and a world champion with France. Now, at 27 and two years into his Real Madrid adventure, he stands as one of the defining players of his generation.

Yet somewhere in the parallel universe of football fantasy, Mbappé runs down the left at Anfield in red, not in Parisian blue or Madrid white — and the Kop roars for a superstar who came agonisingly close to calling Liverpool home.