Rio Ferdinand has tried to leverage his relationship with Kylian Mbappe to get the French superstar to join Manchester United instead of Liverpool.
European football's rumour mill was sent into overdrive on Tuesday when Spanish outlet Marca claimed that the World Cup winner was unhappy at Paris Saint-Germain and was plotting his exit as quickly as January. With Liverpool believed to have been tracking the prolific forward, various outlets were quick to re-join the dots, with Foot Mercato describing the Reds as his "most plausible option", but former Red Devil Ferdinand took his position as a television pundit to make a direct appeal to Mbappe.
Speaking in his capacity as a pundit on BT Sport's Champions League coverage, Ferdinand said: “Kylian, we talk a lot. Come to me, speak to me and I’ll do this. I’ll do this for you, man. Come to me, we’ll do a one-to-one – we spoke last time on Between the Lines, you spoke perfect English, it was great. We can get this done, quash all the rumours and get back to playing football. One of the best players in the world, man, we want to see that.”
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Ferdinand continued his personal crusade on social media, Tweeting a GIF of himself with Mbappe with the comment: “Done Deal #AgentFerdy,” accompanied by a handshake emoji.
At the start of the new season, Mbappe revealed that he had spoken to Liverpool when he was still at player at Monaco, before joining PSG. He also confirmed that the Reds were one of his mother's favourite clubs. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said: "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! 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."
Mbappe has not had any substantial links with Manchester United, but having come close to joining Real Madrid in the summer, with an offer on the table, an eventual move to the Bernabeu has never been ruled out.
Speaking to the New York Times, Mbappe said: “I've never been there [Real Madrid] but it seems like it's my home or something like that.”
Despite the uncertainty about his future, Mbappe was on target for PSG against Benfica on Tuesday evening in the Champions League Group Stage, converting a penalty. The match ended 1-1.
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