New report hints at interesting scenario – What if Liverpool had signed Kylian Mbappé in 2022?

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Wise or risky? 

Football is a fickle sport that rarely spends too much time looking backwards. Once a transfer is completed, fans typically move on from what could have been and either welcome their new star or quickly set about critiquing their performances. The question of which other players could have so easily taken their place is rarely over-analysed because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. But from time to time, reports pop up that offer us tantalising thoughts of how stars may have fitted into teams or leagues that they opted to avoid in real life. 

One such story has popped up in the form of Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé. While his move to the Spanish capital has seemingly been preordained more or less since he made his name in European football, a new report from L’Equipe suggests that the French striker was close to opting for another path in his career. Indeed, the respected publication goes so far as to suggest that the star striker had in fact fallen out with the club shortly after agreeing a new deal with Paris Saint-Germain the summer of 2022. When the Ligue 1 giants then asked the forward to find a new club that would be willing to sign him that summer, Mbappé reportedly came back with offers from the aforementioned Spanish giants and none other than Liverpool, who the France international had apparently already agreed a short-term contract with. So how would things have played out had PSG indulge Mbappé’s demands and allowed him to depart for Liverpool in 2022?

As L’Equipe suggests, following a new contract extension until 2024, PSG were reportedly looking for no less than €200 million for Mbappé in transfer fees. This, undoubtedly would have proposed a significant issue for Liverpool, but perhaps one they could have overcome. That very summer saw the Premier League giants spend no less than €127m on two new forwards in the form of Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo, with a further €18m spent on other players. If Jürgen Klopp & Co. had been given the greenlight to sign Mbappé, they could have surely directed those funds towards signing the French striker instead. But that would have undoubtedly stretched Liverpool’s finances to their limit. And that’s without even considering the reported wages he was earning from his new PSG deal which amounted to a reported €56m per year. 

The French publication claims that Mbappé’s plan was to only join Liverpool for a set period of time, before moving on to Madrid. But there’s little to suggest that the Spanish club would have been willing to pay a similar fee to the €200m Liverpool would have needed to pay for the PSG striker in 2022. And in many ways the Anfield club may have then found themselves in a similar situation to their French counterparts, where Mbappé was simply content running down his contract to join Madrid for free. This would have allowed Liverpool to enjoy having a world class striker in their team for one or two seasons, but again would have put immense strain on the club’s finances. Which, at that point in time, had been so carefully planned out to ensure that Liverpool always had enough money to sign new players and replenish the squad when necessary. 

As we can see in the graph above showing how Liverpool’s spending panned out during that period of time and following the summer of 2022, Klopp used the club’s transfer budget to more or less rebuild the entire squad. Alongside Núñez and Gakpo, the Anfield side then spent €172m signing other star players like Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo. And while that spending spree didn’t offer up any major silverware in Klopp’s final season – aside from a well-earned League Cup – it has been heralded as a necessary transition period that has now allowed Klopp’s predecessor, Arne Slot, to hit the ground running as Liverpool’s new manager. 

Had Mbappé joined the club in 2022 for a record transfer fee and obscene wages to boot, there’s no denying that Liverpool would have been incapable of rebuilding the rest of their squad to the level that it now stands at today. As the Liverpool starting XI above acutely points out, Klopp’s team may have had some incredible firepower in attack, but they would have been let down by an ageing and injury-prone midfield. And there’s little to suggest that Mbappé joining the club that summer would have done more than sell a number of new jerseys around the world and shine an almighty light on a huge financial risk for the club.