Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed the lengths to which the club went in a failed 2017 attempt to sign Kylian Mbappe, describing it as the "most expensive non-transfer" Liverpool had ever invested in. Speaking as a pundit for Magenta TV at the World Cup, Klopp said the Reds laid on a private jet and food for the striker and his family, only for Mbappe — then at Monaco — to choose Paris St-Germain instead.

Klopp explained that a flight was taken from Blackpool to Nice, where the Mbappe family, represented by his mother, boarded a private jet with five rooms, and the group flew in a circle while talking and eating in a bid to keep the meeting discreet. Mbappe subsequently joined PSG on loan with an option to make the move permanent for 180m euros (£153m), spending seven years in Paris and becoming the club's record scorer before joining Real Madrid in 2024. Klopp, 59, left Liverpool the same year after nine seasons and a Champions League and Premier League title, and is widely expected to become the next head coach of the German national team.