Kylian Mbappé's Near Move to Liverpool: A Sliding Doors Moment

Kylian Mbappé standing in front of the Kop. It sounds like a fantasy signing from a Football Manager save, but it almost happened.

The France captain, now 27 and two years into his Real Madrid adventure, has retraced the sliding-doors moment of his career in an interview with The Athletic. Long before the record-breaking numbers in Paris, before the white shirt and the Bernabéu, Liverpool were closer than anyone realised.

And the key influence wasn’t an agent, a sporting director or a marketing department. It was his mother.

“My mum's favourite destination was Liverpool; she wanted me to go there,” Mbappé said. “There was a time, when I was at Monaco, when I had to make a decision and I was close to joining Liverpool. 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.”

Those talks with Klopp came at the moment Mbappé was exploding at AS Monaco, terrorising defences in Ligue 1 and in Europe. Liverpool, searching for the final piece to turn Klopp’s high-octane project into a trophy machine, made their pitch. The German coach, now immortalised at Anfield, sat down with a teenager who already looked destined for the very top.

The charm offensive worked on at least one member of the family. Mbappé’s mother, struck by Klopp’s personality and footballing vision, pushed hard for Merseyside. The idea of the young forward spearheading Liverpool’s attack under Klopp’s guidance had real momentum.

Then Mbappé made his own call.

“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 admitted.

That decision sent shockwaves through European football. PSG paid €180 million to prise him from Monaco, a fee that underlined both his potential and the scale of the gamble. It didn’t stay a gamble for long.

Across seven seasons in the French capital, Mbappé rewrote the club’s record books. He became Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time leading scorer, hitting 256 goals in 308 appearances and laying on 110 assists. Ligue 1 titles stacked up, domestic cups followed, and “Les Rouge et Bleu” were built in his image.

Liverpool, meanwhile, built their own era of success without him, with Klopp sculpting a side that won the Premier League and Champions League. Yet the thought lingers: how different would that story look with Mbappé in red rather than blue?

He chose Paris. He ended up at Real Madrid. The medals and numbers suggest the path worked out. But somewhere in another version of football history, Mbappé is sprinting down the left at Anfield, and Klopp’s grin is even wider.