KYLIAN MBAPPE almost joined RB Leipzig two years ago – before his stunning rise with Monaco and summer exit to Paris Saint-Germain.
The German club’s sporting director Ralf Rangnick says Mbappe’s dad promised his son would join if Rangnick himself was named Leipzig boss.
But Rangnick told German newspaper Bild he “could not give him that promise yet”.
And instead Mbappe stayed in his home country, joining big-spending PSG on loan for the season ahead of a £166million permanent switch next summer.
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Leipzig, though, believed they could have nabbed the then 16-year-old – when they were just a Bundesliga 2 side.
Rangnick said: “We almost signed Mbappe. The problem was back then we just separated from our coach Alexander Zorniger.
“It was shortly after the winter break 2015, so at that moment we didn’t know who our next manager would be and how everything would continue.
“Kylian’s father said to me that if I could say for sure that I would become the new manager, he would entrust his son to me immediately.
“But in February [2015] I could not give him that promise yet.”
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Rangnick actually became Leipzig manager in May 2015, helping them to the top flight before current boss Ralph Hasenhuttl turned them into Champions League challengers.
Mbappe, meanwhile, is now part of the world’s most expensive front three at PSG – with £198m world-record buy Neymar and Uruguayan Edinson Cavani.
And next summer the 18-year-old is eyeing a major role at the World Cup finals – when still a teenager.
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