Klopp Reveals How Liverpool Tried to Sign Mbappe: Private Jet, Custom Meals and the “Most Expensive Non-Transfer”

Jurgen Klopp has finally lifted the lid on Liverpool’s most painful near-miss. The Reds chartered a private jet and laid on custom-prepared food for Kylian Mbappe and his family in 2017, trying to lure the then 18-year-old Monaco forward to Anfield. He signed for Paris St-Germain instead. Klopp calls it the “most expensive non-transfer” the club has ever invested in. The German, working as a pundit for Magenta TV, revealed the story just before France beat Morocco to reach the World Cup 2026 semi-finals — with Mbappe, now 27 and a Real Madrid player, leading the line.

The Flight from Blackpool: What Liverpool Actually Did

Liverpool spared no expense. Klopp explained that a flight was arranged from Blackpool to bring Mbappe and his family in, with meals prepared specifically to their tastes. The teenager had just torn Europe apart with Monaco, and the Reds wanted him badly enough to build an entire hospitality operation around one meeting.

“The most expensive non-transfer” is Klopp’s phrase, and it lands hard. Real money went out — logistics, hospitality, the full recruitment pitch — and no player came back. Liverpool paid the bill for a deal that ended in Paris.

Why Mbappe Chose PSG Over Anfield

PSG offered what Liverpool could not: staying in France, immediate first-team centrality, and a project constructed entirely around him. The move was worth roughly £166m, making him the second most expensive footballer in history at the time. Liverpool in 2017 had only just returned to the Champions League places and could not match that financial firepower.

Klopp went on to build a side that won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020 without Mbappe. But every English fan has run the same thought experiment since: Salah, Firmino, Mane — and Mbappe.

England, France and the World Cup 2026 Semi-Finals

France’s win over Morocco puts them in the last four of the 2026 World Cup, and Mbappe is once again the tournament’s defining attacking threat. For Thomas Tuchel’s England, that is the scenario every tactical meeting has been quietly preparing for. Beating France means solving Mbappe — a problem Liverpool once tried to solve by simply buying him.

There is something almost cruel in the timing. Klopp tells the story of the one who got away on the same day the one who got away books a World Cup semi-final. English football has spent a decade watching Mbappe from the wrong side of the pitch.

What the Story Says About Modern Recruitment

Signing an elite teenager is no longer decided by the offer alone. Klopp described a full method: court the family, create an experience, sell a life. Liverpool executed that playbook properly and still lost to a club offering more on every axis, sporting and financial.

It is an expensive lesson, but a clear one. Klopp, eight years on, tells it with a laugh from a television studio while the subject of the story prepares for a World Cup semi-final.

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