Kylian Mbappe could have been a Liverpool superstar. His mum certainly wanted it.The Real Madrid and France forward has revealed just how close he came to joining Liverpool as an 18-year-old Monaco wonderkid, and how his mother fell in love with Anfield before the deal eventually slipped away.Liverpool went all in for Mbappe in 2016, with then-manager Jurgen Klopp even arranging a private jet to take the teenager and his family to France for talks. ##LINKED_NEWS_69224##But there was one problem: Kylian had already made up his mind about where he wanted his future to be."I was close to [joining] Liverpool," Mbappe told The Athletic. "The favourite destination for my mum was Liverpool. She wanted me to go there."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."His mother, however, was doing everything she could to convince him otherwise.19.00: (1.85) Azerbaijan (3.40) Tajikistan (4.10) She travelled to Liverpool for the early stages of negotiations, visited Anfield and spent time around the club before returning with a very different opinion."She went to the city, the stadium, she met the people. She was like, 'It's a wonderful club, everybody's so kind, it's a family club, a big club’," Mbappe recalled."She went to Anfield and fell in love with it."Mbappe's mother even watched matches alone so she could experience the famous atmosphere and imagine her son playing there."She wanted to imagine me in this stadium," Mbappe said.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Klopp, meanwhile, revealed just how seriously Liverpool were taking the pursuit a few months ago.Speaking about the failed move, the former Liverpool manager explained that the club arranged a private jet from Blackpool to Nice, where Mbappe and his family boarded."The entire Mbappe family boarded a private jet with five rooms or something," Klopp said."We really went all out. Then we flew around in a circle, talked with the family, ate good food."##LINKED_NEWS_67139##The operation was kept deliberately discreet because Liverpool did not want their talks with the French prodigy becoming public. However, after all that effort and despite his mother's enthusiasm, the meeting failed to change the teenager's mind."We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris," Klopp said.Mbappe eventually joined Paris Saint-Germain on loan, with an option that made the move permanent for €180 million. He spent seven seasons in Paris, becoming PSG's all-time leading scorer before leaving for Real Madrid in 2024. And looking back, Mbappe has no regrets about turning Liverpool down."For me, born and raised in Paris, there was no better feeling than to show I could be a star in my hometown," he said.19.00: (1.48) Gibraltar (4.10) Sao Tome (6.25)
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