Kylian Mbappe exclusive: 'I talked to Liverpool, but things were not over for me at PSG'

Kylian Mbappé has just completed his press conference and, immaculately turned out in a dark suit and crisp white shirt, he takes a stool in the Salon Bastille, one of the plush executive suites upstairs at the Parc des Princes, to conduct this exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport. He drops a little bombshell.

It was, Mbappé reveals, not just a straight fight between Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid to sign the 23-year-old who is universally regarded as the most valuable footballer on the planet. He also spoke to Liverpool.

“We talked a little bit, but not too much. We talked a little bit,” Mbappé cautiously confirms before adding that Liverpool actually had a greater chance of signing him when it was time for him to leave Monaco and before he joined PSG in 2017. In fact, he has never hidden his admiration for Liverpool or the football they play under Jurgen Klopp – and it does seem to be the Premier League club he would consider should he ever leave Paris. Quite what it would have meant for their forward line had the talks progressed and he signed this summer is another matter.

“I talked to Liverpool because it’s the favourite club of my mum, my mum loves Liverpool. I don’t know why, you will have to ask her!” he says laughing and nodding towards his mother Fayza Lamari who is also chuckling. “It’s a good club and we met them five years ago. When I was in Monaco I met them. It’s a big club.”

As is PSG and, of course, Real, who were left stunned, embarrassed and also apoplectic by Mbappé’s decision to sign a new three-year contract with the French giants when they believed he was destined to be theirs having made it clear he wanted out of Paris last year before running down the final season of his contract. He could even have signed a pre-contract with Real in January, but did not. Instead, they missed out on him for a third time.

Astonishingly, the announcement from PSG that Mbappé was staying led to Javier Tebas, the combustible La Liga president, declaring it was “an insult to football” and promising to file complaints to Uefa and even the European Commission. PSG have hit back saying it is a sign that the Spanish league is being usurped by France.

“Of course, it was between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain in the end,” Mbappé says as he explains that he only made his final decision last week and called Real president Florentino Perez – rather that WhatsApp-ing him as has been claimed – as he also denies suggestions that he performed some kind of “u-turn”. He genuinely only decided in the middle of last week.

‘My chapter isn’t closed - things were not over for me at PSG’

After that, Mbappé was sworn to secrecy by PSG and did not even tell his team-mates – although he says they could surely discern from his happy mood that he was staying – with some nevertheless only finding out in the dressing room before their final league game against Metz on Saturday. Neither did he ask advice from Lionel Messi or Neymar. Both told him it was his decision.

“Everybody knows I wanted to leave for Real Madrid last year and I think it was a good choice to leave last year. But now it’s different because I was a free agent,” Mbappé explains and it does, actually, appear to have been a significant factor in his decision. He really did not want to leave France for nothing.

“I was a free agent and it was important to give back to my country. If I had left I would have left as a great player but there is a sentimental part. I don’t think my chapter is closed. Things were not over for me at PSG,” Mbappé says.

“I’m French and I know I’m important in the country and when you are important you have to think not only about football but about your life. I will be in France after my career. I will leave here [PSG], I will be with my family, my friends. The only thing I can say is thank you to all the Real Madrid fans and the club because they gave me all the love. It’s amazing because I was only there for one week when I was 14 [to train]. I said to them good luck for the Champions League [final].”

Real face Liverpool, of course, in Paris on Saturday and Mbappé makes no bones about it: winning the Champions League, for him, has become an “obsession”.

“Always an obsession for me, always,” the France international says. “It’s not because we didn’t win it that I have to say it’s a target. No, no, no. It’s an obsession. You don’t have to be scared to lose. No, I am not scared to lose. Maybe I will not win the Champions League next year but it’s an obsession.

“I won the World Cup [in 2018] and I hope to win a second one this year, maybe, but of course I want to win the Champions League. Just because I lost the final [to Bayern Munich] and semi-final [to Manchester City] I won’t say it’s just a target. I am not arrogant. I will try every year to win it because it’s what I want.”

As Mbappé talks, his family sit and watch. Just as they did five years ago, in a different suite inside the stadium, when he signed from Monaco and I was the first writer to interview him – even before the press-conference unveiling took place. We called him the prince of the Parc des Princes. Now he is the king. It is why, to complete the circle of renewing his contract, I have been invited back to talk to him.

Much has changed in the intervening years – although he is wearing a similar sober suit – and, not least, with Mbappé’s 15-year-old brother, Ethan, who is also a player for PSG and has certainly grown a lot since I last saw him. Ethan, like the rest of the Mbappé family including his father Wilfried, is listening intently as Kylian talks in perfect English. Again, the last time I interviewed him he understood English. Now he talks fluently having taken intense language lessons as part of his determination to be a global superstar – and “superstar” is a word he is not afraid to use about himself.

“You can be a superstar and be yourself. It’s what I am. I am myself,” Mbappé says. “I am relaxed. I know I have to do some things because it’s for the football or for the business or because I am famous. But when I go home I am a normal guy. I am Kylian. I go with my friends. I take care of my family. I am like you, a normal guy. When I go out I am not a normal guy though.”

As Mbappé speaks, the noise can still be heard of hundreds of PSG fans congregated outside in the teeming rain singing his name. In a team full of superstars, with Messi and Neymar, he is indisputably the club’s most important player. In a difficult campaign which ended with yet more Champions League disappointment – knocked out by Real, inevitably, in the last 16 despite Mbappé scoring in both legs – he has carried the team with 36 goals in 45 games.

For the third season in a row he was named the best player in Ligue 1 and, at 23, he has already won five French titles, three French Cups and two French League Cups as well as the World Cup. Mbappé has scored 168 times for PSG in 268 games and, with his dynamic style, pace and dribbling, it is not just about the goals.

Still, his godlike standing with the fans represents an incredible transformation from provoking their fury as he tried to force his way out last summer only for PSG to turn down Real’s offer of €180million – pretty much the same amount paid for him – even though it meant they risked losing him for free. But PSG never gave up hope.

‘When people talk to me, I talk about football, titles, big games - I never talk about money’

There is one topic which really animates Mbappé, though, and that is money. He – and PSG – are annoyed at suggestions coming out of Spain that it was the finances, and his demand for control of image rights, that swung it. He is absolutely adamant that is not the case – “It’s quite funny for me, until March there was not a single drop of ink written about image rights” – and insists he barely spoke to PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi about money. Indeed, Al-Khelaifi claims of Real: “I think they were prepared to pay a little bit more than we were.”

“I am a little bit sad because since I played football I showed everybody that I have the passion to play,” Mbappé declares. “Every time people talk to me, I talk about football, I talk about titles, I talk about big games. I never talk about money. People can talk about whatever they want. But everyone who knows me... when I talked to Real Madrid, I talked to Paris Saint-Germain and I never talked money. Not once. I never talked money with Nasser. My lawyer did, my mum did for a few minutes. But not me. I talked about sport because it’s me on the pitch and I don’t count money in my account. I don’t care. I am here to win titles, to show I am the best and to be happy and I am happy right now.”

Such was the intense interest, the almost obsessional interest, in Mbappé’s future that it became a topic of conversation for the French president Emmanuel Macron. Even he attempted to persuade Mbappé to stay in France. “It is something special. I never imagined to talk with this guy about my new contract,” Mbappé says. “It’s amazing to talk to the president, to all these important people. At the end it was my choice. They gave me good advice and I can only say thanks to them. I think a lot about what I can do, where I can be. But my choice was to stay, to stay in my country, because I am French. To stay in the new project, in the new era, of Paris Saint-Germain and I think I made a good choice because it’s my choice.”

PSG have Mbappé for at least the next three years – he insists that is the case, as does the club, and politely points out that release clauses are not allowed in France – with the Parisians now convinced he will never leave. Mbappé also wants to put the record straight on wild claims that he will have some say on who PSG signs and also that he has demanded the captaincy.

“I am a football player first and foremost. I am part of a team and part of a squad,” he says. “We all have different status but I am a football player and won’t go beyond that function. I am a football player, that is it… with regards to being captain, we already have a captain [Marquinhos], an important player and I don’t need to be captain to give my point of view and show exactly what I am made of on the pitch.”

Wherever he plays, though, Mbappé’s ambition is clear, having stated that he wants to be the “best”. But what does that mean to him?

“To be the best? It’s to write history,” he says. “To win important titles collectively and individually. To give pleasure to people, because football is not just about titles, it’s about emotion. It’s about feeling. It’s not just about scoring goals or winning the Ballon D’Or or the Champions League. It’s about showing a lot of things, even off the pitch. To be respectful, to be yourself. It’s global when I said to be the best. It’s why I don’t say to be the best player in the world.”

Some would say Mbappé already is that. He was certainly the most coveted, as Real have been left to ponder ruefully while PSG celebrate.

Our experts recommend the bet365 sign up offer for Premier League betting. Find out why