Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has disclosed the extraordinary lengths the club went to in 2017 to sign Kylian Mbappe from Monaco, revealing a covert operation that included a private jet flight from Blackpool to Nice with the player's entire family aboard. Klopp, working as a pundit for Magenta TV at the World Cup, described it as the "most expensive non-transfer" in the club's history, with the Reds laying on five-room aircraft accommodation and fine dining while circling the sky to avoid detection.

The meeting, negotiated primarily with Mbappe's mother who manages his career through her consulting firm, ultimately proved fruitless despite Liverpool's full-court press. "We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris," Klopp said. The French forward instead joined Paris St-Germain on an initial loan with a 180m euro (£153m) option to buy, beginning a seven-year spell where he became the club's all-time leading scorer before departing for Real Madrid in 2024.

Klopp's nine-year Anfield tenure delivered a Champions League and Premier League title before his 2024 departure, and he is widely expected to take the German national team job. The episode underscores how even maximal recruitment efforts can fall short when a player's trajectory aligns elsewhere — Liverpool's loss became PSG's decade-defining gain, while the Reds eventually built their attack around different profiles. The near-miss remains a sliding-doors moment for both clubs' modern histories.