Liverpool have agreed personal terms with RB Leipzig’s center-back Ibrahima Konate and are preparing to pay the Frenchman’s release clause to make him his first signing of the summer.
The Reds turned out to be in advanced negotiations with Konate already in March, but after the news was silenced somewhat, many reports in Germany suggested that there was no truth in the links at all.
Early links to Konate seem to have proved to be true Boris Streubel / Getty Images
It seems like they may have been wrong.
Fabrizio Romano has now revealed on Twitter that Liverpool have agreed on personal terms with the 21-year-old, who will sign a five-year contract on arrival at Anfield.
All that remains to be done is for Liverpool to trigger Konate’s release clause, even though its real value has been questioned.
When the links to Konate first appeared, a release clause of around £ 35 million was considered correct, but the figure has since dropped to close to £ 28 million. Romano has put it somewhere in the middle. In any case, it is a real find.
Jurgen Klopp is keen to bring in a new face after a season filled with defensive chaos. Both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez picked up early knee injuries that ended their seasons, and the only other healthy midfielder, Joel Matip, followed them to the sides shortly after.
Klopp wants more defensive options | Clive Brunskill / Getty Images
This means that Klopp has been forced to cut and change the back line with a myriad of combinations of midfielders and academy candidates just to try to stay afloat before he found a temporary fix in the form of Ozan Kabak in January.
Kabak agreed on loan from Schalke, where Liverpool negotiated the possibility of signing the 21-year-old Turkey international for about 18 million pounds. The club still wants to sign him and after Schalke’s relegation from the Bundesliga, a new deal could be easier to beat.
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