Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate has been left out of France’s squad for their end of season Nations League games in June.
Konate has been excellent for Jurgen Klopp’s team recently, leading to some hope of a first ever call-up. But the Liverpool star was overlooked.
Instead, manager Didier Deschamps went with more established national team players such as Pascal Kimpembe and Raphael Varane.
Meanwhile, fellow youngsters Jules Kounde and William Saliba have been preferred to the Liverpool centre-back.
Konate’s time will come
Konate’s rise to prominence at Liverpool has been a piece of masterful management from Klopp.
The 22-year-old didn’t make his debut until a month into the season – keeping a clean sheet alongside Virgil Van Dijk as Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-0.
Since then, the Frenchman has played 26 further times for Liverpool and is unbeaten in all of them.
After featuring largely in the domestic cup competitions, Konate has established himself as Klopp’s go-to man to partner Van Dijk in Europe. Ibou played 90 minutes in five of Liverpool’s six Champions League knockout games en-route to the final in his home city of Paris.
As Liverpool’s season approaches its climax, Konate may have just usurped Joel Matip in Klopp’s best eleven. With big games every few days, the £35m signing has started five of the last seven games.
That run included two Champions League semi-finals and an FA Cup semi and final. Big, big games in which the boss has trusted his young defender. He didn’t disappoint.
There is a decision to be made by Klopp over who gets the nod against Real Madrid in Paris.
Whether Konate is picked or not won’t damped what has been a superb debut season at Anfield. Van Dijk was moved to call his performances ‘fantastic’ via LFCTV GO after Konate dominated against Villarreal at Anfield.
If he can keep on the same trajectory, it’s surely only a matter of time before national team recognition follows.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
