Klopp reveals he nearly signed Mbappe for Liverpool: ‘Most expensive transfer we never completed’

Jurgen Klopp has revealed one of the most remarkable transfers to never happen.

The former Liverpool boss stepped down from the Reds in the summer of 2024, and he was often linked with Mbappe.

In fact, Mbappe himself has admitted his mother and agent in a Liverpool fan.

Now speaking on Magenta TV ahead of France‘s World Cup quarter-final win over Morocco, Klopp was pitch side and asked about Mbappe.

Klopp’s incredible transfer story

“I’ve negotiated with three of these players before and never managed to sign any of them,” he began.

“Kylian Mbappe, for one. I don’t remember exactly what year it was – before he went to Paris – but it was for around 500 million. Back in the days of their ‘Galacticos’.

“That was the most expensive transfer we never completed.”

He then added the extraordinary lengths he and his team went back in 2018.

“With Liverpool, we flew from Blackpool to Nice,” he continued.

“The whole Mbappe family came. Private jet, five rooms or something like that. We really went all out.

“We didn’t want anyone to notice. They boarded the plane and we basically flew around in circles.

“Yes. But it was great. In the end, he went to Paris.”

Klopp’s other failed Liverpool deals

Klopp then revealed the two other France players he tried to sign for Liverpool.

“Then there was Ousmane Dembele. He ended up going to Dortmund,” he said.

“We met him in Paris. I had the feeling – I don’t even know if he knew who we were. All the agents were there, we had this conversation…

“Then I left, dropped my phone on the floor, and the only thing I got out of the whole meeting was a broken phone.

“He went to Dortmund and did pretty well, I’d say.

“And then Adrien Rabiot. We spoke with his mother. Just like with Mbappe, she was the key decision-maker.”

Asked why else they didn’t sign, he finished: “Nowadays maybe not as much, but back then, for those young players, it was often the stadium.”

Mbappe ended up signing for PSG instead in 2018 for a €200million, which remains the second-most expensive signing in history, behind only Neymar who also joined that summer for €222m from Barcelona.

Barca would use that money to sign Dembele and Philippe Coutinho who both flopped.

The latter cost €127m, which Liverpool used to sign Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker, later winning their sixth Champions League title and first Premier League in 30 years largely thanks to the duo.