Jürgen Klopp has disclosed that Liverpool made an extravagant but unsuccessful attempt to sign Kylian Mbappé from AS Monaco in 2017, a pursuit the former manager described as the club's most expensive deal that never happened. The effort was valued at roughly 500 million euros, Klopp said while working as a pundit during the 2026 World Cup.
The club arranged a five-room private jet to fly Mbappé and his family from Blackpool to Nice for negotiations, in what Klopp described as a discreet operation. Liverpool also pursued Ousmane Dembélé and Adrien Rabiot during the same window but failed to secure any of the three French players.
Mbappé instead joined Paris Saint-Germain for 180 million euros, where he became the club's all-time top scorer before moving to Real Madrid in 2024. Klopp managed Liverpool from 2015 to 2024.