Last year, Liverpool saw right back Trent Alexander-Arnold run down his contract and join Real Madrid in a move that soured a lot of fans on the boyhood Red. At the same time, centre half Ibrahima Konaté was expected to follow him a year later.
Whether Konaté watched the acrimony around Alexander-Arnold’s move and decided he wanted none of it, or whether he genuinely had a change of heart and was seeking to extend his stay at Liverpool, over the past year the story became one of Konaté actually wanting
to sign a new Liverpool deal.
In the end, though, that didn’t happen. And today Konaté has officially completed a free transfer to Real Madrid that for much of the past year seemed to have been shelved.
While Konaté is coming off a down year for Liverpool, losing the 27-year-old for nothing is a blow. There are good reasons based on talent and ability, after all, that he’s signing on with Real Madrid and not, with apologies to any MLS truthers, Real Salt Lake City.
Confirmation of his departure leaves Liverpool with 35-year-old Virgil van Dijk, an injury prone Joe Gomez, and a pair of teenagers coming off serious injuries in Giovanni Leoni and Rennes signing Jérémy Jacquet as options, which will have many a little nervous heading into 2026-27.
