Real Madrid have informed Liverpool that they will not pursue Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 in 2026, according to The Athletic. The club, which has made a habit of operating in the free-agent market, made the contact directly and asked Liverpool to treat the matter as closed. As the report notes, Madrid\u2019s recent arrivals via that route include Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Antonio R\u00fcdiger and David Alaba, and Liverpool felt the impact of such activity with Trent Alexander-Arnold\u2019s exit last summer.<\/p>\n
The reason for Madrid\u2019s position was not revealed. The Athletic\u2019s report simply says the approach was \u201cdirectly and unequivocally\u201d communicated to Liverpool, cutting through persistent transfer speculation.<\/p>\n
On the field, Konat\u00e9\u2019s recent form has drawn attention. The defender, who was an imperious operator during last season\u2019s Premier League title triumph, has struggled through the current campaign. Even during a run of seven straight victories at the start of the season, he rarely offered much reassurance alongside Virgil van Dijk. The most notable exception was a commanding muzzling of Arsenal\u2019s Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, but otherwise Konat\u00e9\u2019s performances have been judged below the standard expected of him.<\/p>\n
Those performances reached a new low in a midweek thumping to PSV Eindhoven. That 4\u20131 defeat prompted a rare public message from the normally restrained defender. \u201cWe have to take this moment on the chest,\u201d Konat\u00e9 wrote on Instagram after spending much of Wednesday\u2019s 4\u20131 thrashing at the hands of PSV veering around Anfield in circles like a shopping trolley with a broken wheel. The post followed a period in which Arne Slot has taken a defiant tone when faced with Liverpool\u2019s dire run of form, a stance that was echoed by one of his squad\u2019s most disappointing performers.<\/p>\n
With Madrid\u2019s stance now on record, Liverpool can treat speculation over a 2026 move for Konat\u00e9 as settled for the moment, even as questions remain over the defender\u2019s form and the club\u2019s response to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid told Liverpool they will not pursue Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 in 2026, The Athletic in a statement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,987,1163],"tags":[983,299,1215],"class_list":["post-4737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-real-madrid","category-transfers","tag-agents","tag-arne-slot","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}