Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl is expected to bring another defender to the Premier League – but is RB Leipzig’s Bundesliga ace Ibrahima Konate an option?
Yan Valery has taken to Instagram to implore fellow Frenchman Ibrahima Konate to leave RB Leipzig for Southampton during the summer transfer window.
They do say Red Bull gives you wings. And, like Timo Werner, Marcel Sabitzer, Dayot Upamecano and co, Konate has been transformed from a little-known youngster into one of Europe’s most highly-rated prospects since moving to this taurine-powered Bundesliga giant.
The 6ft 4ins centre-back joined Leipzig as a budding 18-year-old from Sochaux in 2017. Three years on, he has forged a formidable defensive partnership alongside Upamecano with Leipzig challenging Bayern Munich’s almost decade-long dominance of German football.
And, with all due respect to Southampton, it seems unlikely that Konate would swap the Champions League quarter-finalists for a club mired in mid-table mediocrity – even if former Leipzig boss Ralph Hasenhuttl is pulling the strings at St Mary’s these days.
But that has not stopped Valery from asking the question.
“You need to come bro,” said the Southampton right-back, who has played alongside Konate for France at youth level, during an Instagram Q&A.
With Maya Yoshida bringing his long spell on the South Coast to an end in January, plus the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Jannik Vestergaard’s future, Southampton are expected to be in the market for defensive reinforcements.
But the chances of Konate reuniting with Valery, not to mention Hasenhuttl, look slim. Especially when you consider that he will cost somewhere in the region of £45 million.
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