Liverpool are ready to rival Real Madrid for the signing of Kylian Mbappe this summer, a new report has claimed.
A Marca Exclusive suggests Liverpool are willing to pay £257m for the superstar striker, who has put the world's top clubs on alert after informing Paris Saint-Germain he will not be triggering the one-year extension in his contract.
That means the top goalscorer at the 2022 World Cup will be a free agent in 12 months time unless PSG cash in on his services this summer. Madrid would seem the most likely destination for Mbappe. However, FIFA agent Marco Kirdemuir told Marca: "Liverpool is competing with Real Madrid and wants to pay a fortune for Mbappe, that fortune he speaks of would be around 300 million."
It is not the first time that Mbappe has been linked with a move to Anfield. And the player himself admitted he held talks with the Reds before signing a new contract in Paris a year ago. Mbappe told the Telegraph: “We talked a little bit, but not too much. We talked a little bit.“
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Despite the new links, there appears little chance of Liverpool making a move for Mbappe even though he could now be on the market. Ian Graham, the club's outgoing director of research, admitted as much at the start of this month.
“Any statistical model will tell you that Kylian Mbappe is the best player in Europe at the moment,” said Graham (via The Guardian). “But unfortunately, financially, he’s out of Liverpool’s league. We’re looking for the best-performing players per pound.”
Mbappe's PSG team-mate Neymar remains the world's most expensive footballer after he moved to the French capital from Barcelona for £198m in 2018. But should Mbappe move this summer, it is likely he would eclipse that fee.
The France international rejected a transfer to Madrid last summer before signing a new contract with PSG, which was initially announced as a three-year deal but which subsequently emerged as a two-year agreement to 2024, with an option of a third year, which he is now refusing to take up.
