Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Real Madrid have performed a U-turn on signing Liverpool star Ibrahima Konate, with a “verbal agreement” reached.
Towards the end of last month, Liverpool confirmed that Konate will depart the Premier League giants upon the expiry of his contract at the end of June.
After shining alongside Virgil van Dijk last season, Konate’s form fell off a cliff during the 2025/26 campaign and was arguably Liverpool’s poorest performer in a dire campaign.
Despite this, Liverpool have been in talks with Konate over a new contract for most of this campaign, and his exit leaves the Reds short of options at centre-back.
At the beginning of this campaign, it was assumed that Konate would leave Liverpool to follow Trent Alexander-Arnold in joining Real Madrid on a free transfer.
One of Real Madrid’s priorities this summer is to overhaul their defence, but there were reports towards the start of this year which suggested that they have pulled out of a deal for Konate due to his poor form this season.
However, Real Madrid have changed their opinion, with Romano reporting on Tuesday afternoon that there is now a ‘verbal agreement’ between the Spanish giants and Konate.
Romano said on X: ‘BREAKING: Real Madrid have verbal agreement in place with Ibrahima Konaté!
‘Four year deal to be signed, depending on if/when Florentino Pérez is re-elected.
‘Here we go, expected right after. 🔜
‘Konaté put Saudi bids on hold for Real Madrid, as@marcosbenito9 reported.’
Journalist Ben Jacobs later provided more details. He said on X: ‘Konate to Real not expected to move until after the presidential elections.
‘However, Real well-positioned having already discussed terms last year. Talks resumed in the last few days.’
_More to follow…_