On the lawn of the Stade de France, a colossus jumps higher than the others, during Liverpool’s last training session, Friday May 27. Ibrahima Konaté looks like a good day. On the eve of the Champions League final, which will be played on Saturday, between Liverpool and Real Madrid, “Ibou” is enjoying his very first steps on the green rectangle of the Stade de France. He has fun with Roberto Firmino, exchanges balls with Sadio Mané and refines his agreement with Virgil van Dijk. All in his city.
Less than eight kilometers from the Stade de France as the crow flies is the La Roquette district, in the 11th arrondissement. This is where Konaté grew up and worked on his football skills. Eight years after leaving Paris FC, the 23-year-old defender is about to play in his very first Champions League final. Probably in front of some friends and family members invited for the occasion. Tradition obliges.
1 – Ibrahima Konaté is the first French player to score for Liverpool in the Champions League since David N’Gog against Debrecen in November 2009. Cocorico. #BENLIV pic.twitter.com/6LQs0fieM9
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 5, 2022
Born in Paris, Konaté is. However, it is like Scouser that he will play this final and try to win the eighth Champions League in Liverpool history. “If we talk about the Champions League, in my city, frankly I don’t have the wordsexplained Konaté in the program Champions League Weekly, produced by UEFA. I think I can’t ask for better than that.“
Maybe a little: to win with the Reds, Konaté will be responsible for containing Karim Benzema, the captain of Real Madrid on Saturday evening. Perhaps the biggest challenge of the moment for a defender, as the French international is in resplendent form, especially in the Champions League.
“Konaté will have to be one step ahead of him“, analyzes Albert Cartier, the coach who launched Konaté into the deep end of professional football with FC Sochaux, one evening in January 2017 against AS Monaco in the Coupe de la Ligue, when the defender was only 17 year.
Current coach of Nancy, Cartier is not too worried about his former player, but warns him: “If he is only in the reaction against Benzema, he will be in danger. He must be anticipating.” In a few months at Liverpool, where he arrived last summer for 40 million euros, Konaté has learned to defend against some of the best attackers in the world. The Premier League is full of them but it is especially in the Champions League that Konate has established himself in the defense of the Reds.
Normally, Jürgen Klopp takes his time before installing a player who has just arrived in the team. So Konaté has been chomping at the bit in the English league with 11 games played (990 minutes played), but shone in seven Champions League games (630 minutes).
Alongside Virgil van Dijk, one of the best central defenders in the world, Ibou has settled into the Liverpool defense, ahead of the experienced Joël Matip and Joe Gomez.
A progression that does not surprise Albert Cartier: “Unlike some players, there are steps he doesn’t need, which can be a waste of time for him. I told him very early on that he had the capacity to reach the very top level.“So Konaté left, after six short months at Sochaux in Ligue 2. Head to Germany and the ambitious RB Leipzig where he will rub shoulders with Ralf Rangnick, Manchester United coach this season, and Julian Nagelsmann, Bayern Munich coach. transfer deemed risky by some.”He had to go, he needed a high level environment, he made the right choice“, judge Cartier, who at the time approved Konaté’s decision.
His last two seasons with Leipzig, truncated by several injuries, have not dampened Klopp’s desire to bet on Ibou. Since then, the German coach has fallen in love. “I think we all saw Konaté’s potential. He is incredible. Physically, technically, his understanding of the game… He has everything“, he launched in September. Before being more severe in March: “It’s always the case with these young players, sometimes the level of concentration drops a little […] He can do much better.“
A message passed before two errors made by Konaté, in the quarter-final return of the Champions League against Benfica, then against Wolverhampton last weekend in the Premier League. “He is able to reverse anything from negative to positive. Even when he is in difficulty, he is lucid enough to approach events in a positive way to then progress.“, reassures Cartier.
Naturally very jovial, always with a smile on his face during his interviews, Konaté could win the third title of his career tonight, the third of the season with Liverpool after the FA Cup and the League Cup. Last weekend, the Reds came close to winning the Premier League. But what better consolation prize than the Champions League for Ibou and his teammates? “I think about this final every day“, assured the defender to Telefoot mid-May.
The other competition that Konaté probably thinks about every day is the World Cup. “A dream“, he launched during the same interview. When announcing the list of players selected for the France team for the June matches, Didier Deschamps ensured that he was closely monitoring Ibou’s performance: “He obviously has an interesting profile. […] He has all the qualities of a modern defender.“
The coach of the Blues simply regretted “that he plays in a four-man defense at Liverpool“, while the France team is playing with a five-man defense. A system that Konaté experienced in Leipzig. Sign, if another was needed, that his arrival at the Blues is only a matter of months But before making Karim Benzema his teammate in the France team, Konaté will therefore have to face him on Saturday evening.
#YNWA #5 pic.twitter.com/5aVXV7iSTV
—Ibrahima Konate (@IbrahimaKonate_) July 8, 2021
When he signed for Liverpool in July 2021, Konaté had mobilized his district of La Roquette by taking out the smoke to celebrate this new important stage in his career. Less than twelve months later, the whole capital will vibrate for this long-awaited Champions League final, which was initially to be played in Saint Petersburg. And if Konaté and Liverpool win, we bet that the Roquette district will once again celebrate it in the rules of the art.