Jurgen Klopp reveals price of failed Liverpool move for Kylian Mbappe was sky high

Ex-Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has opened up about the club’s “most expensive non-transfer,” recalling their ambitious 2017 bid to lure a teenage Kylian Mbappe away from Monaco.

When the rising French star announced his desire to depart the Ligue 1 side, Europe’s biggest heavyweights launched a massive recruitment battle. In a desperate bid to win the race, Klopp spearheaded a secret Liverpool mission to the south of France, personally pitching the Anfield project to the 18-year-old forward.

The high-stakes gamble ultimately missed the mark. Mbappe opted for a loan switch to Paris Saint-Germain, which turned into a permanent £153 million blockbuster transfer the next summer.

He spent seven years in Paris, rewriting the record books as the club’s greatest goalscorer, before eventually making his highly anticipated move to Real Madrid.

Jurgen Klopp told Magenta TV, for whom he is working at the World Cup:

“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. 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.”

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