Ibrahima Konate’s exit from Anfield was slow and a little graceless.
Renewal talks ran through most of 2025-26 without landing, with proposed bonuses reported as the sticking point, and in April he told the press an agreement was close.
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It wasn’t.
Liverpool confirmed his departure roughly 24 hours after Arne Slot’s exit and shortly after they had said goodbye to Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, and he posted on Instagram that he hadn’t known his last game in front of the Kop was his last.
His contract expired on 30 June.
Real Madrid paid nothing.
Saturday was the first look at what that free transfer buys.
Espanyol 1-2 Real Madrid at the RCDE Stadium, six debutants, and José Mourinho back in the dugout 13 years on.
Bellingham headed in an Arda Güler free-kick in the ninth minute.
Álex Calatrava levelled on the half hour, finishing Javi Hernández’s cut-back, before Carlos Espí won it in the 90th, ten minutes after coming on for Bellingham.
Konate played the full match; Denzel Dumfries and Bernardo Silva were withdrawn on 80 minutes.
MARCA broke the performance in two.
On the first half: “He jumps high to keep up with his marker.”
”Powerful and intelligent.”
”A good first few minutes in La Liga for the Frenchman. Konaté goes all out in the air and nobody can touch him.”
“What a presence the Madrid signing has.”
They marked him a 6 at the break.
The second half pushed it up.
“The best of Madrid in defense… and one of the best things about the six new signings.”
”Tactically perfect, decisive, and trying to bring order to the chaos.”
“Excellent on set pieces, clearing danger as a center-back should.”
Final grade: 8.
The numbers back the assessment rather than flatter it.
Konate had 89 touches, more than anyone on the pitch, completed 97% of his 75 passes, and registered nine defensive actions, again the highest of any player in the match.
He and Dean Huijsen accounted for 10 clearances between them.
He also went close at the other end, heading straight at Marko Dmitrović during Madrid’s second-half squeeze.
Context matters.
Espanyol had opened their own season by beating Levante 3-0, so this was not a soft afternoon, and Konate had barely any pre-season behind him.
Madrid still conceded from a scrappy sequence, Fede Valverde losing track of Calatrava, and faded badly enough after the hour that Espí’s finish felt like a rescue rather than a reward.
Liverpool, meanwhile, go into their opener at Newcastle with Virgil van Dijk and either Jeremy Jacquet or Ronald Araujo alongside him, neither with more than 45 minutes of pre-season.
That contrast will follow both clubs all season.