Ibrahima Konate: “I am Big, I am Strong and I am Not Scared With the Ball”

In his first interview as a Liverpool player, much awaited new centre-back Ibrahima Konate spoke about how delighted he is to be a part of this club.

Here are some of the excerpts:

On the extremely cool shirt-number-reveal video he released earlier:

“I had this idea for a long time. It was good because it was Liverpool with the red colour and I did this video in three hours and it was very, very great for me, my friends and my family – and for the club too. I did it alone but my brother and sister came to see, but they were not on the video.”

“A great player had this number before me. I have not pressure but a little bit of pressure because I have to improve for the future. I hope I will do great things with this number.”

On which players he has bonded with so far:

“With Van Dijk a little bit; Mane because he speaks French; Naby, I knew him for a long time; Origi and Salah. I think I can speak with every player step by step, it will be good.”

On how he would describe his playing style:

“Yes, I am big, I am strong and I am not scared with the ball! I can score more with my foot than my head, it is a little bit strange! This is me! Yes, I have this quality, but I have to work again and again and more and more and more for being a very good defender.”

On what nickname he’d like to be called by:

“Yes, ‘Ibou’ because when I was young, every time my mother would call me ‘Ibou, Ibou’. When I was on the first day in Leipzig, she was with me and she would say every time, ‘Hey, Ibou… Ibou… Ibou…’ and Ralf Rangnick asked, ‘Why ‘Ibou’?’ So, I said it was my nickname because every time my mum would call me that every time and my family too. He said, ‘OK, now it’s Ibou’ and afterwards everyone would call me it.”