Not to mention he could be the "Ibra" who succeeds with us
That is without saying and obviously an added bonus.
Mostly agree here but cannot legitimately compare Konaté who has only recently come into regular playing time at the first division level to De Ligt who has been at an elite level in every age category including a Europa League Final at 17.
There's a reasonable argument to be made that De Ligt is the more ready for primetime first division football at the elite level than FDJ
Not sure if the Eredivisie is "elite level" to be honest with you. It by no means is unless "elite level" covers the top 15 leagues in Europe. I saw that Feyenoord-Ajax game (6-2!) and it was a shocking defensive display from MDL and from Ajax in general. Moreover neither Ajax nor PSV are challenged by any means on a weekly basis outside of Feyenoord (occasionally) and they are far from being an elite team as their latest result confirmed once again. The level of play was appalling as well in that game although it was fun to watch. Never seen a more incompetent referee either who refused to give a single card despite at least 20+ yellow card offenses. I thought that Spanish and Italian referees were bad.
MDL is an early bloomer and more proven. However Konaté is not too green either. He moved to Leipzig in 2017 and plays in a much better league continuously, doing very well. He has experience in the Europa League as well. Of course MDL has 1 season of CL football and a few games for the Netherlands (all friendlies) but that is understandable as the Netherlands don't have many quality CB's while France is the most stacked national team (by far) in that department.
Anyway obviously MDL has more experience on this front and in general while also being significantly more hyped. However I genuinely rate Ibrahima Konaté as the greater talent because he has everything (physical and technical attributes) to succeed and because I will always prefer a "Varane like" CB although such CB's don't exactly grow on trees.
I rate MDL very highly as well, I would just prefer a more pacy CB ideally. However if you have great positioning (usually comes with age), intelligence and anticipation, you don't need to be lightening quick as a CB at Barça.
However I am not going to lie, I would have loved for us to have had a Varane like CB in the past 7 years. As long as RM have been lucky to have Varane.
After some thought I have a hard time rationalizing spending over 70m on a CB, any CB when we need a striker and a LB too.
If Ajax are ready to deal him for 60m and he does very well against Real Madrid I would do it. Perhaps loan Todibo for a season to a team that plays possession-based football that will play him regularly. A German club wouldn't be too bad at all. Real Madrid had a lot success with some of their loans.
[MENTION=19517]Leo_Messi[/MENTION] Konate has a contract until 2023 and they have Nagelsmann joining this summer. So Leipzig have been wary of spending this season and doing too much, but from their next season they're probably going to do a lot to make the jump to become a title contender. Konate will prob end up costing 100m+ right now. Upamecano might be easier to target, although he'll prob cost 60m+ himself and got a bit of Eric Bailly in him as he can be erratic. I like him though, got all the tools to become a WC CB.
Ibrahima Konaté is more of a dream of mine after "scouting" him from nowhere myself by a coincidence. Since the club has not been linked to him even once (from what I am aware and recall), he does not seem to be a likely candidate although I saw 1 local Catalan journalist praising him on Twitter 2 weeks ago or something. However he definitely should be monitored by the club closely given his talent and potential.
Since "discovering" Konaté I have watched a few Leipzig games (some 5+ full games) and aside from Leipzig playing some entertaining football, Konaté impressed me far more than Upamecano practically every single time, including in their game against Bayern which they barely lost.
Apparently Konaté shares the same agent with Todibo so the board might be aware of him.
For instance not long ago, Napoli were rumored to be interested in Konaté in case they sell Koulibaly. According to local Neapolitan papers/sources that is which usually know theirs.
BTW, I highly doubt that Ibrahima Konaté (at least currently) would be more expensive to get than MDL. €100 million would be an absurd number for a 19 year old talent. I think that he could be bought for no more than €60 million. The club establishing a relationship with a club like Leipzig could come in handy as well in the future for both clubs since Leipzig has been and is playing rather offensive football. It could become a good "partner" club to loan out talents and players to.
