Ibrahima Konate’s exit adds to a drain of experience from Liverpool – but the figures did not add up – The Athletic
“I know you want me,” chuckled Ibrahima Konate as he walked past reporters in the Anfield mixed zone following last Sunday’s final game of the season against Brentford. The France international did not break stride and questions over his future remained unanswered.
Five days on and, belatedly, there was clarity. Konate is set to leave Liverpool when his contract expires at the end of June.
The 27-year-old centre-back will become the third member of the 2024-25 season’s Premier League title-winning team to depart as a free agent this summer following the emotional farewells to Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson.
Liverpool wanted to keep Konate and there’s a sense of disappointment among senior club figures that an agreement over a new deal could not be reached. However, the gap between the financial package the player wanted and what Liverpool were prepared to offer proved unbridgeable. He earns around £150,000 ($202,000) per week and was seeking a significant increase that would have brought him into line with some of the club’s higher earners.
Konate leaves having made 183 appearances across five seasons since arriving from Bundesliga team RB Leipzig for £36million ($48.5m) in the summer of 2021. His double act with captain Virgil van Dijk was pivotal to the 2024-25 title triumph, and he also helped Liverpool win two League Cups and the FA Cup during his time at Anfield.
It has been a strange contract saga with the waters muddied by the downturn in Konate’s form this season. Unlike the situation with Van Dijk and Salah a year earlier, there was little clamour from supporters for Liverpool to ensure he was tied down.
His erratic performances in the first half of the campaign contributed to the defensive vulnerability of Arne Slot’s malfunctioning side. “A bit too much at the crime scene,” was Slot’s verdict on Konate after his errors had helped Leeds United salvage a point in a chaotic 3-3 draw at Elland Road in December.
Ibrahima Konate, Alisson and Virgil van Dijk are crestfallen after conceding Leeds’ late third goal at Elland Road (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Konate also had to deal with the death of his father, Hamady, in the new year and he returned from compassionate leave earlier than expected to help the team amid an injury crisis. The tears flowed when he was embraced by team-mates after scoring late on against Newcastle United in front of the Kop. It turned out to be his seventh and final goal for the club.
His performances improved and he ended up starting 36 out of 38 Premier League matches this season. Less that six weeks ago, Konate told reporters after the Merseyside derby victory over Everton that he was on the brink of signing a new contract.
“For a long time we have spoken with the club and we are close to an agreement,” he said. “This is what I always wanted. This club means so much to me.”
Konate even talked about taking on more responsibility following the exits of Salah and Robertson. “The legends are going to leave and after that it’s going to be our turn to take the lead,” he said. “I need the help of everyone as well. I cannot do it alone.”
At the time, Liverpool’s hierarchy were surprised by Konate’s comments because there had been nothing in the protracted discussions up to that point which led them to believe he was about to commit his future to the club.
Where his conviction came from that a compromise was about to be brokered is unclear. However, if Konate thought that speaking so openly about staying would encourage the club to give him the wage hike he wanted, he was mistaken. And with Liverpool still deeming his demands excessive, the impasse remained.
Preliminary talks over a renewal had started in November 2023 with Richard Hughes taking on the baton after his appointment as Liverpool sporting director the following March.
The latest set of accounts for the year ending May 2025 showed that Liverpool’s annual wage bill of £428million was the highest in the Premier League. Elite talent is handsomely rewarded, but they did not believe that Konate was worth what it would have cost to keep him and decided that their resources would be better spent elsewhere.
Ibrahima Konate will depart after five years on Merseyside (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Losing him for nothing as he enters the peak years of his career is far from a great look. Having had a succession of fitness issues during his first few seasons at the club, Konate’s availability has been impressive since Slot took over, with 93 appearances in all competitions over the past two seasons combined. He is also a big character in the dressing room. The drain of experience is a worry with Salah and Robertson also moving on.
Liverpool have shown no willingness to sanction the sale of long-serving No 1 Alisson in the face of interest from Juventus, and rightly so. The Brazil goalkeeper, who has one year remaining on his contract, simply has to be retained, not only because he remains a far superior option to Giorgi Mamardashvili but also because of the leadership he provides.
There are other contract issues that Hughes needs to resolve. Talks with Dominik Szoboszlai to keep him beyond 2028 have yet to result in a breakthrough, while Curtis Jones’ future remains uncertain with Inter among his suitors as he enters the final year of his current deal.
In terms of filling the Konate void in the back line, Liverpool believe they will have two of the best young centre-backs in Europe competing for a place alongside Van Dijk next season.
France Under-21 international Jeremy Jacquet will arrive from Rennes after a £60million move was agreed at the end of the January window. He will be ready for the start of pre-season after recovering from a shoulder injury.
Big things are also expected, too, of Giovanni Leoni. The young Italian defender’s first season at Anfield was wrecked by the ACL injury suffered on debut last September, but he is now close to completing his rehab. Joe Gomez, the club’s longest-serving player, is likely to stay for the final year of his contract.
Liverpool-bound Jeremy Jacquet holds off Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembele (Francy Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Liverpool have bigger priorities than buying another centre-back with other areas of the squad needing urgent attention and the lion’s share of their transfer kitty. They are expected to buy at least two attacking players given Salah’s exit and Hugo Ekitike’s Achilles injury. Federico Chiesa is also set to depart.
The midfield department also needs reinforcements. But to go into next season with Van Dijk, Gomez, Leoni and Jacquet as their four centre-back options would be a sizeable gamble. By August, Van Dijk will be 35, Gomez has had a succession of fitness issues, Leoni is coming off the back of a lengthy absence, and Jacquet is bound to need some time to adapt to his new surroundings.
Teenage defender Ifeanyi Ndukwe, a £2.5m signing from Austria Vienna, will move to Liverpool this summer and there are also high hopes for Mor Talla Ndiaye, the Senegal youth international who joined from Amitie for £1m in January, but they are both viewed as longer-term projects.
It will be intriguing to see where Konate ends up. As a free agent, he will be able to command the kind of wages and signing on fee that Liverpool just were not prepared to offer.
He was a popular figure at Anfield where the sight of him using his frame to ease attackers off the ball was always greeted with the appreciative chant of ‘Ibou’. But he lost his way this season and the timing could not have been worse for him as his contract ran down.
Ultimately, his financial demands just did not stack up with what he was delivering on the field.
