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Most Liverpool fans don’t actually believe the club have a chance of signing Kylian Mbappé. That the 22-year-old superstar is destined to join Real Madrid, either this summer if the La Liga club can get the money together or in 2022 on a free if they can’t.
Yet for every joke about #Mbappe2020 or #Mbappe2021 or now #Mbappe2022, there’s a little whispered hope of but maybe it could actually happen? underpinning it. And as it turns out, Jamie Carragher thinks there might actually be reason for that hope.
“I’m not joking,” Carragher replied in on CBS Sports’ coverage of the Champions League this week as relayed by F365 when asked about the possibility of Mbappé to Liverpool. “They had a decent chance of getting Mbappe when he was at Monaco.
“I know Jurgen Klopp had spoken to him then and I’m sure other clubs had at that time. I think he will, guaranteed, play for Real Madrid at some stage, but I’d always feel that maybe Liverpool is that perfect destination for a player like that before that step.”
Liverpool have largely shed their image as a stepping stone club in recent years, but it does seem clear Mbappé will eventually end up at Madrid. And there probably isn’t a club on the planet that would say no to three or four seasons out of him before then.
Still, even with just a year left on his Paris Saint-Germain contract, signing Mbappé would take an exorbitant transfer fee. It would also take exorbitant wages—wages that would potentially do real damage to the wage structure at a club like Liverpool.
All of which means, realistically, if Madrid aren’t willing or able to move for the striker this summer, Mbappé will remain at PSG one more season and join them in 2022. Still, until it happens there’s jokes. And maybe even hope if you believe Carragher:
“There’s no doubt on social media, he’s put a couple of things out when Liverpool have been playing at home in the Champions League and it’s got us all a little bit excited.”