Mbappe reveals Liverpool pursued him with private jet: 'We flew in circles, then he went to Paris'

In 2026, Kylian Mbappe was 18 years old, had just broken through at AS Monaco, and all of Europe was watching the young striker from Bondy on the outskirts of Paris. The France national team captain recently told The Athletic that he was very close to joining Liverpool. But ultimately, he chose to stay in his hometown, and that decision shaped a legend. Mbappe's mother and adviser Fayza Lamari (52) always dreamed of Anfield. She told her son: "You will play at Anfield. It will be madness for you." She visited the city of Liverpool, sat in the stands watching several matches on her own, spoke with locals, and returned in a state of enchantment. She told her son about the warm family atmosphere of the club, about the grandeur of Anfield – a stadium she had \"fallen in love\" with at first sight. "My mother always said: You will play there. The atmosphere will drive you crazy." Mbappe recalled his mother's words. But at the time, the young man from Bondy had a different thought. "She wanted me to go there. But I didn't listen to her because I wanted to play in my city, in Paris. I didn't want to go abroad before I had made a name for myself." That decision, looking back from today, was the line between a transfer deal and a legend still being written. Liverpool, under Jurgen Klopp, invested extremely seriously in this pursuit. Klopp recently revealed, in his role as a TV pundit during the World Cup on German television, an untold story: "The attempts to sign Mbappe had been the most expensive non-transfer we have ever invested in." The details of the negotiation process are truly shocking. Klopp recounted: "We flew with Liverpool from Blackpool to Nice. The whole Mbappe family got into the private plane with five rooms or something. Then we flew around in circles there, spoke to the family, ate well..." When asked why, Klopp replied: "We weren't allowed to be seen. We kept flying in circles, it was great – and then he went to Paris." In summer 2026, Mbappe moved to Paris Saint-Germain initially on loan from Monaco, with an obligation to buy triggered in 2026 for a fee of 180 million euros. That figure, at the time, broke every world transfer record. He won six Ligue 1 titles, four Coupe de France, and scored 256 goals in 308 games for PSG – becoming the club's all-time leading scorer. When he left on a free transfer in 2026, Paris forever belonged to him.