Better than Rüdiger: Florentino and Xabi want this Premier League player, €50M

One of the names that's making a lot of noise in Real Madrid's transfer market for the final weeks of the current summer window is Ibrahima Konaté. Liverpool's "5" is part of a plan to expand the options in the heart of the defense, although his signing is initially scheduled for mid-2026.

It will be then, in fact, when the top executives led by Florentino Pérez can sign him as a free agent, without paying any transfer fee to Liverpool. That roadmap isn't well received in the upper echelons of Anfield Road, from where they've reportedly made a contract renewal offer that the player hasn't replied to yet.

According to Defensa Central, the "red" player is increasingly open to the possibility of joining Santiago Bernabéu locker room. The accounts of his playing style, about which Xabi Alonso already has the basics, are very common: the latest, from his first coach, is quite revealing.

Veteran coach Eric Hély points out that Ibrahima Konaté isn't a typical center-back like others who've played for Real Madrid. That's why he makes it clear that "I don't see him as a Varane, he's more like Desailly", a legend of the French national team. The former footballer born in Accra combined his duties as a center-back with excellent work as a holding midfielder.

More than up to the task as a successor

Ibrahima Konaté, according to his first football coach, would have built his career following that highly regarded defender. "He gives a lot of security and has a very good touch, I'd say even better than Rüdiger, who is undoubtedly an athlete", says Eric Hély. That comparison with Real Madrid's German "22" comes at a difficult time for the Berlin defender.

Xabi Alonso gave a certain level of prominence to Antonio Rüdiger during the Club World Cup, with the goal of helping him recover slowly from his knee surgery. The absence of Dean Huijsen for the semifinals, given his red card in the quarterfinals, put the German "22" in the starting line-up... in a match in which he wasn't up to the task, not only because of the mistake he made before the 10th minute.

Since that heavy defeat against PSG, the name Ibrahima Konaté seems to have become Real Madrid's new priority for the transfer market. Xabi Alonso has reportedly insisted on signing another defender to replace both Rüdiger and Raúl Asencio, whose performance in the Club World Cup hasn't been brilliant either.

"I think Ibrahima is technically stronger," concludes Eric Hély about the French defender. The "red" executives are demanding €50 million ($54.4 million) to let Ibrahima Konaté leave during the remainder of the 2025 summer window, a figure that's excessive for the Madrid board. The executives led by Florentino Pérez have set a maximum spending cap of €25 million ($27.2 million): time is on their side in every way.