On Sunday, Ibrahima Konaté confirmed that he would not continue his career at Liverpool despite regular updates throughout the second half of the 2025-26 season from the player suggesting that a new contract was in the works.
In the end, instead of a new deal Konaté and the club had failed to hammer out a new deal for the 27-year-old centre half over the previous two seasons and the club would lose a defender counted as amongst the best in Europe just 12 months earlier for nothing.
As to where he might
end up next, we haven’t had to wait nearly as long to get confirmation as we did hearing that Konaté was going to sign a new deal—and then not signing a new deal.
Barring a shock, Konaté will play his football at Real Madrid next season. A year ago, Los Blancos had been rumoured to be chasing the French international for this summer, but when Konaté’s form cratered that talk soon disappeared.
When Konaté confirmed he wouldn’t be signing a new Liverpool deal on Sunday, as a result speculation primarily focused on Paris Saint-Germain, or failing that a potential Turkish or Saudi move that would have promised big wages but seen him moving to a far less prestigious league.
In the end, though, it appears the foundations laid previously with Madrid have paid off and Konaté will get the move to La Liga that he seemed fated for last summer.
As for Liverpool, for as much as Konaté’s form dropped this past season, replacing a prime age centre half who was amongst Europe’s best 12 months ago after losing him for nothing is hardly ideal, especially in a summer already set to see significant squad turnover.
