Liverpool will be one of the sides ready to sign Kylian Mbappe if he leaves PSG this summer.
Mbappe kicked off another saga in Paris yesterday, informing the club that he won’t be triggering a one-year extension on his contract. That leaves just 12 months remaining on his deal. With no intention to see him leave on a free in 2024, PSG have reportedly put him up for sale.
And according to Spanish outlet Marca, there’s only really two clubs he could join.
The first is, obviously, Real Madrid. Mbappe joining Los Blancos has always felt like an inevitability. They made an offer of around £146m to sign him a year ago, and the suggestion from Marca is that with one year left on his deal, he’d be cheaper than that.
But the other, reportedly, is Liverpool. In fact, the Reds are said to be a ‘big candidate’ to sign Mbappe if PSG follow through on their promise of putting their star man up for sale. Here we go again!
Mbappe kicks off another saga
It really is a wonder how Liverpool are continually linked with a move for Mbappe. At one time over the last few years, the Reds may feasibly have been a candidate to sign a man described as ‘the best player in the world’ [CNN]. But now, as a Europa League side, they surely can’t.
Liverpool walked away from an expensive deal to sign Jude Bellingham this summer because of the finances. If they thought Jude was expensive, then wait until they hear the wage Mbappe is on in Paris.
So, money is without doubt the main reason Liverpool wouldn’t go for Kylian. But having said that, there are potentially football reasons as well.
Blowing more than £100m plus big wages on Bellingham would have been difficult, but at least it would have made sense. Liverpool are desperate for midfield reinforcements and the 19-year-old is the outstanding midfielder of his generation. There was genuine logic involved in targeting him. The same can’t really be said of Mbappe.
Yes, the Frenchman would probably be the best forward at the club, but Liverpool already have top-class options in the left-sided position he tends to covet.
Signing Mbappe this summer certainly hasn’t been in the Reds’ transfer plans, so bringing him in would only lead to Klopp having to try and shoehorn him into the team.
Of course, there are players you make these exceptions for, and Mbappe is probably one. His mother is famously a Liverpool fan and there’s too much smoke in this one without there being some kind of fire. Nevertheless, we’ll eat our proverbial hats if it ever happens.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
