Ibrahima Konaté (25) was one of very few France players not to play a single minute during Euro 2024. When he was selected to take part in the tournament in Germany, he was expected to play a prominent role.
In the months leading up to the competition, he had seemingly consolidated his place alongside Bayern Munich’s Dayot Upamecano. However, during the Euro 2024 warm-up matches, Didier Deschamps trialled Arsenal’s William Saliba alongside Upamecano. The France manager liked the result and as a result, opted to go with the Arsenal man for the duration of the tournament as Les Bleus reached the semi-finals of the competition.
For the duration of the tournament, Konaté was forced to watch from the sidelines as he did not feature in any of France’s six matches. Speaking ahead of fixtures against Israel and Belgium in the UEFA Nations League, Konaté reflected on his difficult summer.
“It was a reassessment. It is an experience that I had. I changed a lot of things, in terms of my relationships with other players and with the manager as well,” began the Liverpool centre-back. “It’s in the past. I was above all thinking of what I had to do, how I had to act and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
He added, “My role was to be there with the team and to support. I managed to do that; I did my job. The Euros are behind me and I am here to reach other objectives and do what I have to do.”
