Kylian Mbappé Reveals 2017 Liverpool Private Jet Meeting
Kylian Mbappé has revealed he came close to joining Liverpool in the summer of 2017 before he chose Paris Saint-Germain, telling The Athletic that the move included a private jet meeting with Jürgen Klopp. The Kylian Mbappe Liverpool PSG transfer saga has rarely been explained in this much detail before now.
Mbappé was still at Monaco at the time and facing the biggest decision of his young career. Speaking about that summer, he said: “It was while I was playing in Monaco. I had to take a decision. And yes, I was close to Liverpool. My mum was a big fan of Jurgen Klopp and the favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there.”
He also spoke warmly about the Liverpool manager himself. “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!’ because Jurgen Klopp was an amazing manager. I met him and had a wonderful relationship with him. I had big respect for him.”
Fayza Lamari Anfield Visit and Primary Source Details
Mbappé’s mother, Fayza Lamari, has long acted as his agent, and it was her instinct that pulled him towards Merseyside. She sat in on the private jet meeting with Klopp and, by her son’s account, left convinced that Anfield was the right home for him.
Mbappé described her reaction after visiting the club. “She was like, ‘It’s a wonderful club, everybody’s so kind, it’s a family club, a big club,'” he said. Her enthusiasm went further than words. According to Mbappé, she travelled to Liverpool alone during the negotiations simply to feel what a matchday there was like.
“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 in the interview with The Athletic. It is a detail that shows how seriously Liverpool were considered, not as a distant rumour but as a genuine, family-backed option on the table.
Hometown Choice and PSG Squad Impact Context
Despite his mother’s clear preference, Mbappé ultimately went against her advice. He explained why family loyalty was not enough to change his mind. “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. 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.’ I was like, ‘OK!'” he said.
His final explanation was simple and personal. “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,” Mbappé told The Athletic. That pull towards Paris has shaped much of his career since, and PSG fans will recognise the sentiment from our earlier report on how highly he still rates his time at the club.
Klopp himself later confirmed how close the deal came. He told German outlet Magenta TV that the pursuit was “the most expensive non-transfer we ever made”, a remark that underlines just how much time and money Liverpool invested before Mbappé chose Paris instead.
Career Timeline from PSG Loan to Real Madrid
Mbappé did join PSG that year, though not immediately on a permanent deal. He arrived on loan for the 2017-18 season before the move was made permanent, and he went on to become one of the most decorated forwards in the club’s history. His full account of the Liverpool interest appeared in the original interview with The Athletic.
Mbappé’s time in Paris eventually came to an end in 2024, when he transferred to Real Madrid. Even from Spain, the story of his 2017 choice still resonates with PSG supporters, many of whom remember exactly how close the club came to losing him before a single ball was kicked in the capital.
