Speaking on The Athletic’s Why Always Us? podcast, Manchester City correspondent for the website, Sam Lee, discussed a previous link between City and PSG attacker, Kylian Mbappe.
Since making the move from AS Monaco to Paris Saint-Germain in what was a £130.5 million deal back in 2018, Mbappe has gone on to make 124 appearances for the Ligue 1 side, scoring an astonishing 90 goals and providing 51 assists.
Last season, the 21-year-old forward scored 18 goals and provided five assists over his 20 league appearances, averaging an incredible WhoScored match rating of 8.14 – helping his side to claim the Ligue 1 title.
In addition to this, Mbappe scored a further five goals and provided a further five assists over his 10 appearances in last season’s Champions League, averaging a match rating of 7.43 – firing his side to the final of the competition.
The £162 million-rated Frenchman has been tenuously linked with a move to Liverpool this summer, however, speaking on the Why Always Us? podcast, Sam Lee recalled a time when he overheard that Manchester City were in for the forward.
He said: “I remember me and John Smith went outside, John went and had a little wander off towards the pitches. I went over to grab a bottle of water or something and this conversation was going on on the phone.
“I remember the first line was ‘Pep [Guardiola]’s already spoken to the boy and he wants to come’. I was like ‘what is this?’ I think there was something about Gareth Bale in there, actually. That’s just come to me now. I’m sure there was something about Gareth Bale and how they didn’t want him, it was a non-starter.
“There was something about this other player, Mbappe, that they would go up to a certain amount and they were waiting to hear back from the Monaco CEO. So I was like ‘oh my god.’ I’ve just heard somebody at City, who would know [about the transfer], you know. This wasn’t the kit man.
“I had to go into City and tell the press office. I was like ‘look, I’ve just heard so and so talking loudly on the phone about signing Mbappe.'”
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From Lee’s comments then, it would seem that City were indeed once in for Mbappe when the player was still at Monaco.
It would have certainly been interesting to see how Mbappe would have made a difference to City over the last two years, considering his remarkable goalscoring rate at PSG.
However, with the player’s value now at £162 million, it is not hard to imagine the 21-year-old costing a great deal more today than the £130.5 million PSG paid for him back in 2018.