‘I told him off’ – Ibou Konate shares the powerful motivational message he had for Hugo Ekitike | OneFootball

Ibrahima Konate has revealed how one motivational question to Hugo Ekitike triggered an instant response from his Liverpool teammate.

Only a few weeks after joining the Reds from Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer, the 23-year-old received his first call-up to the senior France squad and has played in all four of their subsequent World Cup qualifiers.

The Reds duo are both away with Les Bleus for their November fixtures against Ukraine and Azerbaijan, with Didier Deschamps’ side clinching their ticket to North America next summer if they beat the former on Thursday night.

Konate shares his motivational message for Ekitike

Konate has spoken about how, after Ekitike was reluctant to carry out extra gym work after a Liverpool training session, the defender threw down the gauntlet about a prospective national team call-up.

The Reds’ number 5 told Canal+ Foot: “One time, I told him off a bit, but it was funny. We were supposed to go to the gym after training. He was tired because we put a lot of intensity into sessions; it is really hard. I go and see him to tell him to come to the gym, and he tells me, ‘But I’m shattered’.

“We don’t have to go to the gym, but it is better, so I looked at him and said, ‘Do you want a call-up to the France national team or what?’ Then I leave. One minute later, he is in the gym.”

(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Ekitike has taken Konate’s motivation on board

Konate’s words clearly got through to Ekitike, who was duly rewarded by Deschamps in the early weeks of this season with a place in the France squad and, subsequently, his first four senior caps for his country.

The striker has quickly learned about the standards which are expected of him at Liverpool – in addition to the centre-back’s motivational question, the 23-year-old recently spoke of how Arne Slot is constantly reminding him of aspects where he can improve.

The Reds’ number 22 has made the biggest impact thus far out of our summer signings, with six goals making him our top scorer for the season up to this point, and compatriot Djibril Cisse has said that he ‘wasn’t expecting him to be that good that quick’.

How much of that is down to Konate’s incentive about playing for France? That answer is subjective, but what we can see clearly is that Ekitike is quickly proving to be an astute addition for LFC, and his performances at club level have merited the caps he’s earned from Deschamps.

Carving out a starting berth in Les Bleus’ stacked forward line represents a bigger challenge again for the 23-year-old, but if that carrot is dangled in front of him, it could motivate him to reach a whole new level for Liverpool, and that can only be a good thing!

You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: