Real Madrid have reopened their interest in Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 after a winter in which transfer options evaporated, according to a report. The club had cooled on Konat\u00e9 following his difficult start to 2025\u201326, but renewed monitoring followed the close of the January window.<\/p>\n
According to ESPN, Los Blancos are once again monitoring Konat\u00e9 in their pursuit of a \u201cdefender who can be the bedrock of the defense for the next decade.\u201d The move reflects growing concern about the club\u2019s defensive depth after repeated injury problems.<\/p>\n
Over the last season and a half, Real Madrid\u2019s backline has been decimated by injuries. Natural midfielders Federico Valverde, Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni and Eduardo Camavinga have all been converted into emergency defenders to plug gaps left by \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o, Antonio R\u00fcdiger, David Alaba and Dani Carvajal.<\/p>\n
Last summer the club believed it had strengthened the defence by signing Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen and \u00c1lvaro Carreras, but the left-back has managed just 16 games this season because of injury and Huijsen has struggled in his debut campaign. With Alaba on his way out at the end of the season and R\u00fcdiger potentially to follow, Real Madrid are left with only three first-team centre-backs. Milit\u00e3o\u2019s injury history and Huijsen\u2019s difficulties offer limited security, leaving another defensive signing high on the agenda.<\/p>\n
That urgency has been complicated by inactivity in January. Real Madrid turned away from Konat\u00e9 in November while considering three other alternatives: the Premier League prospect Gu\u00e9hi, veteran free-agent candidate Upamecano and the young talent Jacquet. Those options have since diminished. Manchester City signed Gu\u00e9hi in a deal worth an initial \u00a320 million (\u00a326.8 million), Jacquet is set to join Liverpool for the 2026\u201327 season and recent reports suggest Upamecano is close to renewing with Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n
With rivals moving on targets, Konat\u00e9 has returned to Madrid\u2019s scouting picture as the club seeks a dependable central defender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid eye Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 after January window leaves centre-back options limited. This winter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[987,1163],"tags":[1393,1448],"class_list":["post-6541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-madrid","category-transfers","tag-centre-back","tag-defender-transfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6541","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=6541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}