Virgil van Dijk has told his Liverpool centre-back partner Ibrahima Konate to reject approaches from Real Madrid and stay at Anfield.

Last summer, Konate looked set to be the latest free agent to join Real Madrid after Kylian Mbappe and Trent Alexander-Arnold but his loss of form this season has made that questionable.

Either way, the Frenchman is currently running down his Liverpool contract which ends in the summer but Van Dijk, who himself was heading for a free exit last summer before an extension, asked that his “friend” stay at the club.

“We are friends, we speak about everything,” Van Dijk told reporters after Liverpool’s 1-0 win away at Sunderland. “It’s a process and let’s see what comes out of it. It’s never that easy. We saw with my own situation last year so it’s never that easy that we can just say ‘let’s get it done’.”

“Obviously I want him to stay. He’s an important figure on the pitch. That’s what everyone sees but off the pitch as well, he’s one of the leaders.

“He’s outstanding and in my eyes, a world-class centre back. I can do only so much but it’s in the club’s hands, together with his agents and himself so let’s see what comes out of it but I have no influence otherwise on that.”

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If Konate were to leave, Liverpool’s centre back options would look very light. Van Dijk, who turns 35 in July, would be the senior figure of a group involving Joe Gomez, Rhys Williams and Giovanni Leoni who is out injured until August.

Konate’s performance against Sunderland has been singled out for praise from both Van Dijk and manager Arne Slot who said he was not surprised to see the Frenchman play so well.

“Impressed but not surprised,” Slot said. “He’s an example, almost of our season, he’s been so unlucky. He’s played games where he’s been so good for 89 minutes and then one moment ruins our game, his game.

“It’s not always about him but a few times that has happened and then everyone is focused on his mistake.

“But footballers make mistakes and not always the ball goes in. I was just asked about the last 10 minutes and I said the good thing was we didn’t concede a chance.

“Against Manchester City we didn’t concede a chance after the first minute until the 84th minute, then we let one in. So it was good to hardly concede a chance and Ibou was a big part of that, together with Virgil.

“But I liked the mentality of the whole team. I was pleased to see how we defended. Ibou played a great game against [Brian] Brobbey, who is always difficult to play against.”

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