Klopp and the €500m Non-Transfer of Mbappé

On a warm night in Foxborough, away from the noise of the pitch and the glare of the cameras, Jürgen Klopp stood on the touchline and watched Kylian Mbappé go through his warm‑up routine. The smile was there, of course. It always is with Klopp. But so was something else: the look of a man revisiting a story that never quite became his.

Now a pundit for MagentaTV rather than the man barking orders from the technical area, the former Liverpool manager shared a brief reunion with France’s captain after Les Bleus’ quarter-final win over Morocco. There was a wave to Mbappé’s mother, a familiar face from another life, and then the past rushed back in.

Those memories still irritate him. Klopp admitted as much. He has sat across the table from three major French stars – Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Adrien Rabiot – and never managed to bring a single one to Anfield.

“It's extremely tough for me right now,” he said. “I've already negotiated with three of their players and never got them.”

The secret flight for the signing that never was

Mbappé is the one that lingers most. Klopp didn’t just try to sign him; he built an undercover operation around the attempt.

Back in 2017, when the teenager was tearing up Ligue 1 and the race for his signature was turning feral, Liverpool went covert. To avoid the transfer circus, the club chartered a private jet from Blackpool to Nice, keeping the entire mission off the radar.

“With Mbappé, it was before he went to Paris,” Klopp recalled. “That was roughly €500 million, the most expensive non-transfer we've ever made.”

“We flew from Blackpool to Nice. In Nice, the whole Mbappé family boarded a private jet with five cabins. Then we flew around in circles and had a delicious meal. We weren't allowed to be seen. It was great – and then he went to Paris.”

The image is almost cinematic: Klopp and Liverpool’s hierarchy, high above the French coast, locked in conversation with the most coveted teenager in world football and his family, circling in the sky so nobody on the ground would know. No leaks, no airport photos, no transfer tip-offs. Just a manager trying to sell a vision.

The sales pitch was strong. The outcome was brutal. Mbappé chose Paris Saint‑Germain and a €180 million move to his home city. Liverpool were left with their “most expensive non-transfer” and a story that now sounds like a punchline delivered with a wince.

Mbappé’s path, Klopp’s regret

The years since have twisted in ways nobody in that plane could have fully mapped out.

Mbappé became the face of PSG, then the lightning rod for its politics. His time in Paris brought goals and titles, but also friction, as internal rivalries with Lionel Messi and Neymar coloured the project. The superteam glittered but never quite settled.

He has now reset his career at Real Madrid, a move framed as the next great chapter for a 27‑year‑old still chasing the one club trophy that has eluded him: the Champions League. In this version of history, PSG have already lifted the trophy twice in the two seasons since his departure, a twist that only sharpens the narrative around his own pursuit of European glory.

Klopp, meanwhile, walked away from Liverpool in 2024 after transforming the club but also absorbing the strain of competing at the very top for nearly a decade. The farewell at Anfield was emotional, but he has not disappeared. He has simply changed vantage point.

From the studio, he now dissects matches, offers insights, and occasionally opens the curtain on stories like that Mbappé chase – the near-misses that shaped what Liverpool tried to become.

A manager in waiting, a captain on a mission

His sabbatical may not last long. At 59, Klopp is already being lined up for the next heavyweight job. He is on the verge of replacing Julian Nagelsmann as Germany’s national team coach once the major tournament in the United States reaches its end. The dugout is calling again, this time with a flag rather than a club crest on his chest.

Mbappé has no time to dwell on what might have been either. His focus is locked on the present. His goal against Morocco has pushed France into the semi-finals, another step in a tournament where he carries the weight of a nation and the expectations of an era.

Two careers, two trajectories, intersecting briefly on a touchline in Foxborough. One man thinking of the transfer he never got, the other chasing the titles he still hasn’t won. The secret jet, the €500m “non-transfer”, the wave to a familiar face in the stands – all part of a story that still asks a tantalising question: what would the football landscape look like if that plane had landed at Anfield instead?