It won’t be this summer and it won’t be cheap but something deep inside me just knows Jurgen Klopp will find a way to sign Kylian Mbappe.
Still just 22 years old and valued at somewhere around £150million, Kylian Mbappé Lottin is arguably the most coveted player on the planet right now and whoever signs him is guaranteeing their club a place at the top of European football for the next 10 years.
He’s that good.
Despite his youth, he is already operating at levels that we saw Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo normalise in the late 2000s and into the last decade. This season, the Parisian scored 42 goals and assisted another 10.
His pace is a nightmare for defenders to deal with and, after making a mockery of Jerome Boateng in the Champions League this season, he showed he’s not just a speed-merchant and is capable of standing up the best defenders in Europe and teaching them a lesson.
MUNICH, GERMANY – APRIL 07: Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain celebrates after scoring their side’s first goal during the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final match between FC Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain at Allianz Arena on April 07, 2021 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Manchester City eventually knocked out his PSG side but despite playing in a team with the mercurial Neymar, it feels as though he is steadily overtaking the Brazilian as the most important player at the club.
This is why his contract standoff is all the more concerning for PSG sporting Leonardo, who has been unsuccessful in getting him to sign a new deal and this leaves the Ligue 1 giants at risk of losing him for free after spending €180m (£165.7m) to sign him in 2017.
Klopp met with Mbappe and his advisers before his move to PSG and while the Reds were unable to sign him at the time, I feel as though the stars will align for him to move to Anfield next summer on a free transfer.
He will need to continue running his contract down and I’m sure that won’t be easy for him to do given that he loves the club but the fact of the matter is that he is so good that even in the final year of his contract, he is the most valuable player in the world.
France’s forward Kylian Mbappe gestures during the friendly football match between France and Wales at the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, southern France on June 2, 2021. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)
Liverpool might not need to pay a transfer fee next summer if he runs down his contract but Mbappe will still demand unearthly wages that would require the club to decimate their wage structure but he’s worth it.
I appreciate how the wage structure in place has helped Liverpool maintain squad harmony but you do not pass up on a player like Mbappe if you can afford it and without the need to pay a transfer fee, the funds this would free up would allow the Reds to pay Mbappe more than the £403,000 he is currently earning.
Assuming Liverpool paid Southampton £75million for van Dijk and he is earning around £180,000/week, that brings the total cost of having the Dutchman at the club for five years to £121.8million.
Philippe Coutinho’s move to Barcelona was worth £105million upfront so it’s fair to assume that helped fund a move for van Dijk but giving Mbappe a contract worth £104m over five years is not entirely unrealistic given that it wouldn’t need to be paid upfront and would mimic the amortisation process clubs go through when signing players.
This allows them to pay huge transfer fees over the course of the player’s initial contract with the buying club without having to fork out the entire transfer fee in one sum.
Jurgen Klopp coach of Liverpool talks to Kylian Mbappe of PSG during the Champions League match between Liverpool and Paris Saint Germain at Anfield on September 18, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Anthony Dibon/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
Jurgen Klopp has spoken about Mbappe before in a way that I have never seen the German speak about players from other clubs, with the 53-year-old tending to avoid increasing talk of transfers unnecessarily.
But I think he just couldn’t control himself after Liverpool dramatically beat PSG 3-2 in the Champions League at Anfield in 2018 thanks to a superb Roberto Firmino winner in the 91st minute.
Speaking to a reporter about Mbappe after that game, Klopp had this to say: “I love him, to be honest. What a player he is and a nice lad as well, so he’s a really good kid.
“Everyone knows him since he was 16, 17, when he impressed in Monaco’s youth teams, and I saw videos of him when he was 17 and he destroyed defensive lines as he is doing now.
“He’s at an unbelievable level of consistency at that age. He’s an outstanding player, that’s clear, but he can deliver, deliver and deliver, which shows he’s really good educated boy and he knows what he is doing.”
FOOTBALL : Paris Saint Germain vs Bayern Munich – Finale – UEFA Ligue des Champions – 23/08/2020 Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain laughs during warm ups prior to the UEFA Champions League Final match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich at Estadio do Lisboa e Benfica on August 23, 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
Signing Mbappe is an obvious risk but there are inherent risks with every transfer but the upside to signing the French superstar is higher than any transfer I have ever seen and while someone like Mo Salah is, pound for pound, one of the best signings ever made, the hype signing the PSG man would generate would be unseen.
Not only would signing him sell an absurd number of shirts, but it would also be great for marketing with Nike sure to make the most of it.
I might be crazy but I can realistically see this happening in the summer of 2022 when he would be 23.
