To put it simply, Liverpool had a very poor season in 2025/26. They finished fifth in the Premier League, having been the reigning champions, and failed to make it beyond the quarter-finals in any of the cup competitions.
As a result, head coach Arne Slot was sacked in May, and the club are looking to push forward and appoint Andoni Iraola as his replacement. However, there was one huge mitigating factor to consider when discarding the club's disappointing campaign.
That was, of course, the tragic death of Diogo Jota. The Liverpool star was killed in a car crash along with his brother Andre Silva on 3 July 2025. It sent shockwaves through the football community, and one of his teammates has now opened up on the impact it had on him.
Ibrahima Konate: 'Diogo Jota's Death Devastated Me'
Diogo Jota tribute banner at Wembley
Ibrahima Konate was a key player for the Reds in 2025/26, playing 51 games in total, only missing two Premier League games. However, his form was shaky at times, and he certainly wasn't as consistent as he had been in the club's title-winning campaign a year before.
It's no surprise that his best football was not forthcoming after Jota's death completely disrupted his summer, which should have been spent recuperating. He wasn't the only Liverpool star to struggle either, and the Frenchman opened up on how hard it was to focus on sport after the tragic loss of his teammate. Speaking on France Inter radio station, via Daily Mail, Konate said:
"Even today it’s hard to believe. His locker was still there in the dressing room, and every day when I was going to training he was coming with us. I remember when I found out when I was in Los Angeles and I couldn’t believe it. It devastated me.
"I didn’t have any interest in anything else at that point. It was the last person anyone would have chosen this to happen to. He didn’t care about anything. He just wanted to be happy and to have a good time with his teammates and his family. He wasn’t interested in fame.
"He was my neighbour as well, so I shared a few more moments with him. It was something powerful that happened to all of us."
Konate went on to discuss how hard it was to focus his mind on football, but felt that he owed it to Jota and his family, as well as the club’s fanbase. He added: "You go back to football because you have no choice.
"We’re employees at a club that pays us every month, so we have duties. I think every fan was affected by this too, and I think all that we can do to help them is by winning games. We had no choice but to go back on the field and play for him and his family – as well as ourselves. There’s no way of getting over it, but you learn to live with it."
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Konate Also Lost His Father During the Season
Ibrahima Konate
Making the season even more difficult on a personal level, the 27-year-old revealed that his father, Hamady Konate, had been struggling with his health at a similar time and then passed away in January. The French defender recalled:
"I’ve never spoken about it before, but it’s true that at the start of the season, my father was in hospital for several weeks. And actually, in my situation, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether I should go home and stop playing, because the team needed me too.
"I didn’t know who to talk to about it, so I kept it all to myself. And this is the advice I’d give to everyone listening: when you’re feeling down or something’s going on, you need to talk to those around you. It can help you and do you good. I didn’t talk about it and kept it to myself.
"The doctors then told us he didn’t have long to live, but we didn’t know it would happen so quickly."
He stayed available for the club for essentially the whole playing 36 times in the Premier League, only missing one game against Bournemouth on special leave for his father. Konate spoke about the toll it has taken on him, noting: TThere was never a moment when I felt like I was on the mend. All of these tragic events happened so quickly and, as soon as I felt like I was getting my head above water, something else happened. But then I had the support of all these fans, who are exceptional at Liverpool.
"My teammates and especially my family, but I also had to learn how to get back on my feet on my own because the team needed me more than ever. And I told myself that it happens to everyone every day, and I know that my father would have wanted me to get back."
Konate – who is now leaving Liverpool following the expiry of his contract, and looks set to join Real Madrid on a free – also spoke about how players should not be 'ashamed' to suffer from depression in football. He concluded: "Depression is personal; it’s deep inside you. When you’re depressed, it starts in the heart, goes up to the brain and takes over your whole body. For me, that’s what’s hard, and we need to talk about it."