Kylian Mbappe had ‘verbal agreement’ to join Liverpool but U-turn saw Jurgen Klopp sign Darwin Nunez
Kylian Mbappe will likely never fulfil his mother’s wish of playing for Liverpool but that doesn’t mean two years ago he didn’t come close. The Frenchman ended one of football’s most predictable transfer sagas by joining Real Madrid this summer but interest from Anfield had lingered over his career since he was a teenager. Klopp made no secret of his admiration for Mbappegetty Liverpool almost landed Mbappe as an 18-year-old from Monaco in 2017 when he held talks with their former manager Jurgen Klopp. The capture of a player on lower wages but high potential and resale value represents the type of signing the club’s American owners love to make. Fenway Sports Group chief John W. Henry held a two-hour meeting with Mbappe’s family on his private jet around the bay of Nice. However, the player’s preference to remain in his homeland saw boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain win the race for his signature. His subsequent rise to superstardom should have killed all talk of Liverpool’s net spend king owners FSG sanctioning any future move. However, if anything, links between Mbappe and Merseyside increased during his time at PSG – aided by a courtship that played out in public. Parisian outlet L’Equipe claimed in September the 25-year-old reached a verbal agreement to join Liverpool two years ago. Mbappe is said to have struck terms on a short-term deal at Anfield – which allegedly included a provision that would facilitate a future move to the Bernabeu. This was done as a workaround stance to PSG’s resolve to avoid doing any business with Real Madrid – before the Ligue 1 giants ultimately convinced Mbappe to sign a two-year contract extension in 2022. All sound too fanciful to be true? Perhaps, but let’s look at the evidence that could prove that maybe the signs were there all along… Klopp was first keen to sign Mbappe from Monaco as a youngsterGetty Images - Getty Klopp’s early extension ‘good for transfer windows’ In April 2022, Klopp delighted Liverpool fans by announcing that he had put pen to paper on a two-year extension to his contract. His deal hadn’t been due to expire until 2024 – ironically when he chose to leave the club anyway – but the timing is significant. The futures of the German’s long-serving front three Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane were much more pressing, with each of the trio about to enter the final years of their contracts. As the three attackers were also approaching, or had already celebrated, their 30th birthdays at the time – historically when Liverpool’s FSG owners get skittish over offering pay rises – a decision needed to be made over whether they would sign new deals or be moved on rather than risk losing them for free in 2023. So why the fast-tracking of negotiations and announcement of an extension with Klopp? Well, a day before Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Newcastle on April 30, Klopp claimed that it ‘made sense’ to confirm his commitment to the club before the end of the season, revealing it may aid the club’s transfer business in the summer. Liverpool needed a Van Dijk-type signing to shake up their attackGetty Mbappe: ‘My mum loves Liverpool’ Just 24 days after those comments from the Reds manager, Mbappe admitted in an interview that he had held talks with the club. “We talked a little bit, but not too much. We talked a little bit,’” Mbappe told The Telegraph. “I talked to Liverpool because it’s the favourite club of my mum; my mum loves Liverpool. I don’t know why, you will have to ask her. “It’s a good club, and we met them five years ago (too). When I was in Monaco, I met them. It’s a big club.” During those 2022 negotiations, the future of Klopp would undoubtedly have been discussed. Mbappe has shared his admiration for the 57-year-old, whose sway over influencing any switch to the Premier League couldn’t be understated. The public display of flattery was also a mutual affair, with Klopp talking up the World Cup winner before Liverpool faced PSG in 2018. He told RMC Sport: “I love him, to be honest. What a player he is and a nice lad as well, so he’s a really good kid. What a player, what a player.” His 2022 assessment that his personal contract extension aiding transfer business may have been a subtle hint to Mbappe, with talks ongoing at that time. Mbappe has endured a difficult time since moving to Real MadridGetty Salah or Mbappe? Liverpool would have also had to draw up replacements to cope with the potential dual loss of Mane and Salah – who were not only on higher wages than Firmino – but could each accrue a bigger fee. The former joined Bayern Munich that June, with the latter very close to following his fellow winger out the exit door that same month. Salah’s lawyer and advisor Ramy Abbas Issa told a 2023 Harvard Business School study that Liverpool was ‘very far’ apart in contract talks
Kylian Mbappe will likely never fulfil his mother’s wish of playing for Liverpool but that doesn’t mean two years ago he didn’t come close.
The Frenchman ended one of football’s most predictable transfer sagas by joining Real Madrid this summer but interest from Anfield had lingered over his career since he was a teenager.
Liverpool almost landed Mbappe as an 18-year-old from Monaco in 2017 when he held talks with their former manager Jurgen Klopp.
The capture of a player on lower wages but high potential and resale value represents the type of signing the club’s American owners love to make.
Fenway Sports Group chief John W. Henry held a two-hour meeting with Mbappe’s family on his private jet around the bay of Nice.
However, the player’s preference to remain in his homeland saw boyhood club Paris Saint-Germain win the race for his signature.
His subsequent rise to superstardom should have killed all talk of Liverpool’s net spend king owners FSG sanctioning any future move.
However, if anything, links between Mbappe and Merseyside increased during his time at PSG – aided by a courtship that played out in public.
Parisian outlet L’Equipe claimed in September the 25-year-old reached a verbal agreement to join Liverpool two years ago.
Mbappe is said to have struck terms on a short-term deal at Anfield – which allegedly included a provision that would facilitate a future move to the Bernabeu.
This was done as a workaround stance to PSG’s resolve to avoid doing any business with Real Madrid – before the Ligue 1 giants ultimately convinced Mbappe to sign a two-year contract extension in 2022.
All sound too fanciful to be true? Perhaps, but let’s look at the evidence that could prove that maybe the signs were there all along…
Klopp’s early extension ‘good for transfer windows’
In April 2022, Klopp delighted Liverpool fans by announcing that he had put pen to paper on a two-year extension to his contract.
His deal hadn’t been due to expire until 2024 – ironically when he chose to leave the club anyway – but the timing is significant.
The futures of the German’s long-serving front three Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane were much more pressing, with each of the trio about to enter the final years of their contracts.
As the three attackers were also approaching, or had already celebrated, their 30th birthdays at the time – historically when Liverpool’s FSG owners get skittish over offering pay rises – a decision needed to be made over whether they would sign new deals or be moved on rather than risk losing them for free in 2023.
So why the fast-tracking of negotiations and announcement of an extension with Klopp?
Well, a day before Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Newcastle on April 30, Klopp claimed that it ‘made sense’ to confirm his commitment to the club before the end of the season, revealing it may aid the club’s transfer business in the summer.
Mbappe: ‘My mum loves Liverpool’
Just 24 days after those comments from the Reds manager, Mbappe admitted in an interview that he had held talks with the club.
“We talked a little bit, but not too much. We talked a little bit,’” Mbappe told The Telegraph. “I talked to Liverpool because it’s the favourite club of my mum; my mum loves Liverpool. I don’t know why, you will have to ask her.
“It’s a good club, and we met them five years ago (too). When I was in Monaco, I met them. It’s a big club.”
During those 2022 negotiations, the future of Klopp would undoubtedly have been discussed.
Mbappe has shared his admiration for the 57-year-old, whose sway over influencing any switch to the Premier League couldn’t be understated.
The public display of flattery was also a mutual affair, with Klopp talking up the World Cup winner before Liverpool faced PSG in 2018.
He told RMC Sport: “I love him, to be honest. What a player he is and a nice lad as well, so he’s a really good kid. What a player, what a player.”
His 2022 assessment that his personal contract extension aiding transfer business may have been a subtle hint to Mbappe, with talks ongoing at that time.
Salah or Mbappe?
Liverpool would have also had to draw up replacements to cope with the potential dual loss of Mane and Salah – who were not only on higher wages than Firmino – but could each accrue a bigger fee.
The former joined Bayern Munich that June, with the latter very close to following his fellow winger out the exit door that same month.
Salah’s lawyer and advisor Ramy Abbas Issa told a 2023 Harvard Business School study that Liverpool was ‘very far’ apart in contract talks and he feared a breakthrough wouldn’t be reached.
Ultimately, that July, the Egyptian became the highest-paid player in the club’s history with wages worth more than £350,000-a-week.
Those figures would have been impossible to offer with Mbappe also on the books, with Liverpool still dragging their heels during their latest round of negotiations with Salah.
This year, his age has become a major talking point in contract talks but that wasn’t a risk financially during talks two years ago.
As Salah’s agent said for the purposes of the Harvard study and reported by the Times: “Mohamed isn’t going to throw away his contract because of a 5 per cent difference in what we are asking for and what they are willing to give — it is much more than that.”
Change of plans and Nu recruit
Let’s look at Liverpool’s incomings that Klopp had been so keen to aid the club with by announcing his new contract before the summer.
Only three senior signings arrived at the AXA Training Centre before the panic deadline day loan for Arthur Melo – who ultimately played just 13 minutes over the following season.
Two of the three before him were teenagers, with Wigan loanee Calvin Ramsay and Fabio Carvalho – now of Brentford – joining for minimal fees.
The other was Darwin Nunez, who became the club’s record signing when he joined in June from Benfica in a deal worth up to £85m.
Liverpool are no stranger to shelling out on players they think are worth it, but every time before the Uruguayan came with more prep.
The Reds had tracked Alisson Becker from his time at Brazilian side Internacional on the advice of their former star Doni before stumping up a world-record fee for a goalkeeper in 2018.
So sure was the club about Virgil van Dijk that they waited an extra six months after Southampton initially put a roadblock on any move rather than pivot to another defender.
The challenge for Klopp’s next star forward was to emulate those two in having as transformative effect on Liverpool’s attack as Alisson and van Dijk had had on his defence.
Unfortunately for Nunez, the landscape from which to do that was completely different and here’s why.
Van Dijk, Alisson, Salah, and Mane had all been signed at ages 26-24 respectively after being swayed while holding talks with Klopp.
Nunez, 22 at the time, had only two seasons of top-flight football under his belt and couldn’t understand Klopp without a translator.
Mane, Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino were all leaving at the time of his signing, while contract talks with Salah and Firmino were at an impasse – with the latter leaving for free the following summer.
The dramatic overhaul meant Klopp’s new attacker was one the club couldn’t afford to take a gamble on to continue taking the fight to Manchester City, who had just unveiled Erling Haaland.
Yet Nunez was soon billed as a long-term project who would need time to adapt in a way none of Liverpool’s other expensive signings had.
His transfer was widely pushed by Klopp having been impressed with the striker’s performances for Benfica in their Champions League quarter-final tie with his side.
Nunez scored both home and away in Benfica’s 6-4 aggregate defeat to Liverpool in…you guessed it…April 2022.
Liverpool later signed Cody Gakpo to deputise in an unorthodox role as centre-forward to deputise for Nunez before the year was out.
Klopp forked out a fee between £35m and £45m on the Dutchman, despite avoiding rivalling Manchester United and Leeds for his services six months earlier.
So that’s over £100m on two players capable of playing centrally as well as on the left.
Don’t forget the almost £500k-a-week on wages with the cost of Nunez’s arrival and Salah’s renewal.
Mbappe, who has badly struggled to lead the line for Madrid this term, returns to Anfield this week in his favoured left-wing role.
Maybe it all wasn’t so far-fetched after all?
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