Jurgen Klopp has suggested that Liverpool are unlikely to pursue Kylian Mbappe once he becomes available this summer.
Despite Klopp’s lack of influence over the matter, he suggested that Liverpool won’t be vying for Mbappe’s signature. Mbappe, a World Cup winner, will be out of contract at the end of the season, coinciding with Klopp’s departure from Anfield after nearly a decade in charge.
Reports have linked Mbappe with a move to Real Madrid for quite some time, yet as of now, no deal has been finalized between the player and the La Liga leaders. Mbappe, who currently earns £1.1 million per week at Paris Saint-Germain, will likely need to accept a reduced salary regardless of where he chooses to continue his career.
Real Madrid have extended an offer to sign the 25-year-old France international as their top-earning player, with a weekly salary exceeding £400,000. Klopp, in response, has suggested that Liverpool will not engage in a bidding battle with Real Madrid for Mbappe due to financial considerations.
Despite prior communication between Liverpool and Mbappe’s representatives, and the player’s public hints of interest in joining the Reds, Klopp stated:
“Obviously, I’m not involved in that, but I can tell you I’d be surprised if all the top clubs were.
“The top clubs I know, for most of them it will be tricky – wages, signing-on fee.” Liverpool already have a superstar in their squad in Mohamed Salah, who is fit again after a rare injury.
Klopp has hinted at the possibility of unleashing Salah in today’s match against Brentford (12:30 pm). Owing to his participation in the Africa Cup of Nations and subsequent injury, the Egyptian forward, who boasts 18 goals and nine assists, has been absent from play since New Year’s Day.
The Liverpool manager claims that Salah has been on fire during training sessions and said said: “There’s no doubt about that, I’m over the moon that Mo is training and he looks really sharp. Thank God we did the job [without him], but having him available is a massive boost, on and off the pitch, definitely.
“It’s nothing to do with the numbers he produces, just his personality and the guy, he’s on fire. He wants to get started immediately and so yeah, let’s see. It’s all good.”
On Salah’s longest injury lay-off as a Liverpool player, Klopp added: “Obviously, he missed football a lot. It’s probably the longest period he’s been out for a long, long time, at least, I’m pretty sure since he’s been here.
“So it was a really strange situation for him and for us to play without him for that long. It’s been difficult. In the beginning it was especially difficult because of all the discussions in Egypt, he was injured, not making it up or whatever.
“Everybody believed it in the moment he didn’t play for us and thought ‘Oh, it seems to be really bad’. So until then, I can’t imagine what it’s like for a guy who’s always available and then for once you’re not available and everybody’s crying that you should be available.
“It’s like OK, sorry, he’s still human. But that’s now already three or four weeks ago. Remember when we spoke about it if Egypt reached the final, then he might have a chance, but we didn’t know this in that moment.
“Now he’s back so that’s good and definitely for him, it’s a real challenge. He’s always how is, he’s the most professional player I’ve ever met. He dealt workload-wise really well with it, he used it. Let’s see what he produces.”
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