Ibrahima Konate is now set to leave Liverpool for free when his contract expires in June, after long-running talks over a new deal ended without agreement. The 27-year-old centre-half, who joined from RB Leipzig in 2021, is heading toward an exit that will cost Liverpool a transfer fee only in memory.
That is why Konate is being searched now. Liverpool have spent months trying to decide whether to extend the five-year contract they gave him for £35m, and those discussions began in November 2023. In April, after the Merseyside derby, Konate said he was “close to an agreement” and there was a “big chance” he would stay at Anfield next season. Since then, Sport understands negotiations have stopped.
Konate has not been a peripheral figure. During his time at Anfield, Liverpool won a Premier League, an FA Cup and two League Cups, and the club will lose a defender who is still only 27. He will become the latest player to leave on a free this summer after Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah, deepening a pattern Liverpool would rather not repeat.
The club’s handling of the centre-back position shows why the issue matters beyond one contract. Liverpool are confident they have enough cover after bringing in Giovanni Leoni last summer and Jeremy Jacquet this summer, but they also failed to land Marc Guehi on deadline day last September. For now, Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez are their only experienced central defenders.
That creates the friction in Konate’s exit: Liverpool are letting a first-choice centre-half drift toward the end of his deal while saying other needs are more urgent, including replacing Salah and covering Hugo Ekitike’s long-term injury. The club have already let Roberto Firmino leave on a free in 2023, while Georginio Wijnaldum became a free agent in 2021 after playing in every Premier League match among 51 appearances in his final season. Emre Can, Adam Lallana and James Milner were also allowed to move on when Liverpool chose not to renew, and Naby Keita, Divock Origi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain left without a fee.
Unless Liverpool reopen talks before June, Konate will walk away for nothing, and the club will be left to explain why a defender they chased for months was allowed to run down a contract they once hoped would anchor the next phase of their back line.
