Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate has admitted that his teammates at Anfield are curious to know more about Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe and Konate are colleagues in the French national team, with the former now being named the side’s new captain.
As well as being one of the most high-profile players in world football, Mbappe has also been regularly linked with a move to Liverpool. And sitting down for an interview with Eurosport this week, Konate discussed his new skipper.
“He’s [Mbappe] a young lad who loves to laugh and have fun, nothing more. He’s a very good person,” said the 23-year-old. Konate went on to claim that he’s had to put to bed some misconceptions about the PSG superstar in the Liverpool dressing room.
“Some may think he’s arrogant. It’s something I was asked about in my club and elsewhere. To them, I say ‘Are you crazy ? He’s so nice.’ Of course, he will be a good skipper,” he insisted.
Liverpool keeping tabs on Mbappe character
It’s only natural that Liverpool players may be interested to hear the inside track on Mbappe. The Frenchman is one of the sport’s transcending figures after all.
Regularly portrayed as something of a spoiled brat at PSG, you can forgive the Reds for wanting to find out the real truth. With a man on the inside so to speak, why wouldn’t you ask.
But there is another element to this that can’t be ignored. It may seem wholly unrealistic, but Mbappe has been constantly rumoured to be interested in a move to Liverpool.
As most clubs do, the Reds like to know as much as they can about a player before signing him. It’s public knowledge that they asked former midfielder Marko Grujic about Luis Diaz before bringing him in from Porto. You’d expect they do the same for near-enough every signing they make.
So, to have someone like Konate able to report back on Mbappe’s character would be useful to Jurgen Klopp and the recruitment team. Perhaps they have sounded out their centre-back on Kylian after all.
Clearly, the reports coming back from Ibou will be glowing. How could he have anything but praise for a man who very nearly won him a World Cup? It still seems massively unlikely, but maybe Liverpool do have one eye on Mbappe’s situation at PSG after all.