68 2GM Friday May 27 2022 | the timesSport
Few players have represented both
Liverpool and Real Madrid. Steve
McManaman made the move from
Merseyside to the Spanish capital in
1999 — a decision and a cultural change
which he says forced him to grow as a
person and a player.
Now, though, a footballer does not
need to move abroad to improve and
McManaman uses Liverpool’s Trent
Alexander-Arnold as a case in point.
McManaman was effusive in his‘Trent must hold back – or
Vinícius will do damage again’
Hamzah Khalique-Loonat praise for the 23-year-old right back,
who will play in the third Champions
League final of his career tomorrow
and who this month became the young-
est English player to win all available
club trophies after Liverpool beat
Chelsea in the FA Cup final.
“I knew he was special [when he was
coming through the academy], but it
[his development] is all down to him
and his hard work,” McManaman, 50,
said. “To be as successful and explosive
you have to improve year on year.
“We’ve all seen stand-out kids at 16 or17, but they have to keep improving —
and he [Alexander-Arnold] didn’t win
young player of the year.” With a Carlo
Ancelotti-style raised eyebrow, McMa-
naman added: “[It] just shows you Phil
Foden [who won the award] must have
had an incredible year.
“When you’re 17 you have to push on:
Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott are
going to have to do it if they want to play
100 to 250 games for Liverpool.”
McManaman highlighted the
match-up between Alexander-Arnold
and Real’s 21-year-old left winger,Vinícius Junior, as one of the most
exciting individual contests of the final.
Last season, Liverpool lost 3-1 to Real
in Madrid in the first leg of their quar-
ter-final. Vinícius was involved in all
three goals, scoring twice.
“I think it’s probably one of the best
little battles,” McManaman said. “Liv-
erpool got caught out last season in that
position, with the ball over the top
when Alexander-Arnold and Natha-
niel Phillips played — it’s an area that
can be exploited.
“Wolves tried to exploit that the
other day. Carlo [Ancelotti] did it
against Chelsea [in the quarter-finals],
pinpointed that side of the pitch with
[Andreas] Christensen, and I think
Madrid will do the same [on Saturday].
“[Joël] Matip or [Ibrahima] Konaté
will have to communicate with him not
to go further forward.”
McManaman hailed Ancelotti’sMcManaman with the trophy in 2000
after Real’s win at the Stade de Francerelease clause in his contract,
indicates another smart capture by
the club. Pau Torres, of Villarreal,
Jules Koundé, of Seville, and
Monaco’s Benoît Badiashile were
overlooked in favour of Konaté, who
has yet to lose in 28 appearances for
Liverpool. Despite already savouring
Carabao Cup and FA Cup success, his
ambitions are lofty. “To be, one day,
the best central defender in the
world,” he responds. “And to win all
the titles going. Every one.
Konaté will be helped by playingof Paris into football.”
So far, Konaté is surprising himself.
Having been turned into a defensive
midfielder at under-13 level with Paris
FC, he made rapid strides and joined
Sochaux aged 14.
He then joined RB Leipzig in
Germany, with Ralf Rangnick having
turned up outside the family’s
apartment block in Paris to convince
the player to move to the Bundesliga
after the 2016-17 season.
His move to Liverpool last summer,
after they triggered a £34 millionA
s Ibrahima Konaté was
talking, his eyes kept
being drawn to a picture
on the wall in one of the
commercial lounges at
Liverpool’s plush training ground.
The image was from the parade
that followed the club’s most recent
Champions League success, in 2019,
and showed Jürgen Klopp, with his
back to the camera, thrusting the
silverware towards the heavens from
the top deck of an open-top bus,
which crawled past an estimated
750,000 supporters the day after
Tottenham Hotspur had been beaten
2-0 in Madrid.
Overlaid across the photograph is a
slogan that reads: “By being together
at all times, we will be stronger, better
and our successes sweeter.”
When Konaté, 23, was asked why
his focus kept switching away from
the group in front of him and on to
the artwork, he roared with laughter,
and his answer betrayed the
excitement at what is to come.
Not only does he have the
opportunity to claim a third winners’
medal from his debut season at
Liverpool when they face Real Madrid
in the Champions League final
tomorrow night, but the party can
take place in his home city of Paris.
“I can’t stop looking at the trophy,”
the Liverpool centre back says. “For
this trophy, we’re talking about games
I watched on TV as a kid and grew up
watching. Even the final against
Madrid, when they [Liverpool] lost
[3-1, in 2018], I watched on the
television. So it’s something that is
already part of my history because
I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
“It’s indescribable, what it means.
I’ve not got the words to explain what
winning huge trophies like this onewould mean. The club wants to show
that they’re already part of football
history, and they want to go on
demonstrating that year after year.
“So when I think about the motto
of being together, and having this
history together, it is beyond words.
Beyond dreams.
“It’s going to be the best moment of
my life — I don’t have children yet so
I can’t be sure — but it will be the
greatest moment. The Champions
League final. In Paris. I couldn’t have
dreamt of anything better.From cage football
as a child to brink
of hometown glory
“I hope that we’ll come home with
the title. What a story. Going to Paris,
my home town, and coming back to
Liverpool with that trophy for an
incredible celebration.”
The defender, who was signed from
RB Leipzig 12 months ago, was born
the year after France won 1998 World
Cup at the Stade de France, the scene
of this weekend’s showpiece, and grew
up in the 11th arrondissement.
His parents, father Hamadi and
mother Yara, were immigrants from
Mali who had arrived in the city with
nothing. Yara still works as a
housekeeper, despite her son’s efforts
to persuade her to retire, while
Konaté speaks to Hamadi, who has
never been to see him play because of
illness, every day.
Konaté initially had thoughts of
becoming a striker. Ronaldo was his
favourite player. “The Brazilian one,”
he is quick to add.
His skills would be honed in
familiar fashion. “Yeah, I played in the
cages,” he says. “I think that like most
young Parisians we couldn’t get to see
football in proper stadiums, we didn’t
have the money. And we didn’t play
on [proper] pitches, because we didn’t
have those opportunities.
“But we found ways to play football
whenever and wherever we could —
even with paper. I remember at
school we used Sellotape and paper to
make footballs to play with and, of
course, we really didn’t need much to
be happy. We were happy playing in
the streets.
“If it was a ball made out of foam or
leather or plastic, it would keep us
busy all day.
“We’d play in the street, those
cages, me and my brothers. That’s
why, I think, we have these talents
and qualities.
“Everyone knows that Paris is a
‘fish pond’ [hotbed] with a lot, a lot, of
talent. Today, I’ve been lucky enough
to reach this level but it’s not the end
in itself. I’ve still got a lot of aims and
goals to reach.
“I hope that I’ll reach even higher
heights and be a source of inspiration
for young people, an inspiration for
more people to come from the streetsIbrahima Konaté tells
Paul Joyce that winning
the Champions League
in Paris would be a
life-defining moment
Sadio Mané is hoping that
winning the Champions League
with Liverpool will help him to
become the first African player to
win the Ballon d’Or in 27 years.
Mané described it as “sad” that
no player from the continent had
been given the award since George
Weah, the AC Milan and Liberia
forward, who won in 1995.
“If you guys say it [voting
ignores African players], what can
I say myself? It is sad,” Mané said.
“Winning the Champions League
is special: I have a chance to play
[in] it again and we have a chance
to win it as we have a strong team.
We will do everything we can.
“But for me it would be even
more special to have another
bonus, which is the Ballon d’Or,
and I would be the most happy
player in the world.”
Mané’s contract expires in the
summer of 2023 and talks between
the player and Liverpool are due
to start after the final against Real
Madrid in Paris.
“I think football is about joy,”
Mané said. “So enjoy the moment.
I would say it is one of the best
seasons... so far.”Mané has eye
on Ballon d’Or
Paul JoyceMr Invincible
Liverpool are yet to lose a game in
all competitions in which Ibrahima
Konate has startedStarts by competition
Premier League
11
Champions League
7
FA Cup
6
Carabao Cup
1Won
19Drawn
6Lost 0Played
25Sport Champions League Final