Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed details of the club’s “most expensive non-transfer” when they tried to sign Kylian Mbappe from Monaco in the summer of 2017.
All of Europe’s top sides were keen on the France international after he announced he wanted to leave the Ligue 1 side and Klopp led a club delegation to the south of France in a clandestine attempt to persuade the then 18-year-old to move to Anfield.
It proved futile, however, as Mbappe subsequently joined Paris Saint-Germain on loan before making the move permanent the following year for £153m, leaving seven years later for Real Madrid as the club’s record goalscorer.
“The most expensive non-transfer we (Liverpool) invested in. We flew from Blackpool to Nice. In Nice, the entire Mbappe family boarded a private jet with five rooms or something,” Klopp told Magenta TV, for whom he is working at the World Cup.
“We really went all out. Then we flew around in a circle, talked with the family, ate good food (in the plane).
“We couldn’t be seen. We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris.”
Mbappe is top of the goalscoring charts at the World Cup after registering again against Morocco to help France into the semi-finals.
