By Tom Gott
Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konate has stressed his commitment to the club in the face of fresh transfer links to Paris Saint-Germain.
Konate, who was born in Paris, has long been tipped to head back to the French capital and did his best to downplay the speculation last November. But, as he enters the final two years of his current contract at Anfield, links to PSG have re-emerged.
Indeed, L'Equipe state that intermediaries have made it clear to Konate that PSG would be interested in his services heading into a summer which is expected to bring talks over a new Liverpool deal.
In a recent appearance on RMC Sport's Generation After podcast, Konate was quizzed on the rumours and quickly moved to distance himself from an exit.
"I'm focused on the pitch and the Euros," he said. "I don't even think about that. I have two years left on my contract, I'm happy at Liverpool, so my head is there."
Konate went on to admit he understands where the links to PSG come from but once again stressed he is not entertaining the speculation.
"I saw [the PSG links], leave me alone!" he laughed. "I'm French. Hearing PSG are interested makes me neither hot nor cold, because I haven't had a conversation with them or whoever. I am honestly focused on the pitch. I'm not paying too much attention.
"It's a bit logical because I was born in France and in Paris. I have six older brothers and all six support PSG, I think, at least four or five. We watched a lot of matches together, they took me to the old stadium and the training centre.
"There's a little history with PSG but I made my own path. I played at Sochaux, then Leipzig before Liverpool. I'm happy."
Reflecting on his own performances in the 2023/24 campaign, Konate admitted things didn't always go to plan but vowed to step his game up next year.
"Personally, I am quite satisfied despite a few glitches that arose," he said. "We're not going to go into details because there are some things that people don't know.
"I was doing quite well for a period and then I had a little problem. I was sick all week but I played. I should have been a little selfish at that point and said maybe I wasn't well. I wasn't feeling well at all, I was dodging the players so as not to pass on my illness to them. It was like some kind of flu. I took the risk to play. I regretted not completely saying I didn't want to play, but other than that, great.
"I felt good with the team. As a collective, we faltered at the end and we must learn from the mistakes we made. I hope next season will be better."
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This article was originally published on 90min.com as Ibrahima Konate addresses Liverpool future amid fresh PSG links.
