Liverpool are the favourites for RB Leipzig defender Ibrahima Konaté, and the German side are ‘rubbing their hands’ at the prospect of a sale.
That’s according to SportBILD, who say the Bundesliga club are eyeing up a ‘windfall’ from the potential sale of the Frenchman.
Konaté, for those that don’t know, has been heavily linked with a move to England for several months, with Liverpool at the front of the queue for his signature.
They are keen to add a central defender to their squad this summer, and Konaté, who has a release clause in his contract, is considered a prime candidate.
Indeed, reports in England this week stated that a deal was well advanced, and Liverpool were working on getting it done as soon as possible.
SportBILD pick up on that today and state that Konaté is indeed being ‘courted’ by teams in England, of whom ‘Liverpool is the favourite’.
They explain that Leipzig can’t defend themselves from any offers as Konaté has a release clause in his contract, but they’re not fussed anyway.
In fact, they would ‘rubbing their hands in glee’ from a financial aspect as the transfer fee, which could go as high as €46m, would be a ‘windfall’.
That’s because Konaté came to the club free of charge and his agent’s cut was low, so a sale would be ‘lucrative’ for them.
It’s all there for Liverpool to get their man, then, although we need to nail down what Konaté’s release clause really is.
At first, it was €40m, but that dropped to €30m and, according to this latest report, is now somewhere around €46m. Those are wildly different figures, and we can’t see Liverpool paying the latter.
They would much prefer to keep things as cheap as possible so what the actual figure is, is likely to determine if they actually get this deal done.
