Liverpool Confirm Salah Exit as Rivals Take the Spine

Liverpool named 12 players to leave on 9 June, including Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate. The club collected no transfer fees for that first-team trio after a fifth-place Premier League finish.

By September, Konate was a Real Madrid player, Robertson was at Tottenham, and Salah had signed for Trabzonspor on a two-year deal.

Twelve Names, Zero Transfer Fees

Liverpool submitted its Premier League retained list after the 2025-26 season and put the split in public. Four senior players were going, eight academy names would follow them out, and eight others were asked to stay on new terms.

The club’s own wording was brief. Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson, Mohamed Salah and Rhys Williams were “each departing the Reds’ senior squad this summer.” Kareem Ahmed, Emmanuel Airoboma, James Balagizi, DJ Bernard, Oakley Cannonier, Josh Davidson, Terence Miles and Jacob Poytress would be “embarking on new chapters.” Everybody at the club, the note said, thanked them and wished them well.

https://x.com/LFC/status/2064346778967966113

That post is the whole story in one line. A retained list is not a transfer window recap. It is the point at which out-of-contract players become other clubs’ business, and Liverpool had already let the biggest three walk into that market.

THE 12 WHO LEFT

The same 12 names sit on the league’s summer released lists, which record who comes off a club’s books when a deal dies on 30 June. Bernard is the one scholar on Liverpool’s sheet, listed as released rather than a free transfer. The football was the same. He still had to find a new club.

Tottenham Collect Robertson as Madrid Land Konate

Tottenham had Robertson before Liverpool even posted the list. The 32-year-old Scotland left-back completed his move on 5 June, four days before the retained list, after telling Anfield in April that he would go when the contract ended. Spurs had chased him in January and been told no. Once they stayed in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Everton on the final day, the deal was there to finish.

Head coach Roberto De Zerbi sold the signing as leadership as much as defending.

Andy is someone I’ve admired for a number of years and he will bring outstanding technical qualities, experience, leadership and mentality to our team. He is a proven winner at the highest level over a long period and is someone who can be a big player for us, both on and off the pitch.

Roberto De Zerbi, Tottenham head coach

Sporting director Johan Lange called him an outstanding left-back and one of the best of all time in the Premier League. For a club that had just scrambled to stay up, Tottenham taking Liverpool’s left-back on a free was the cheap way to buy a winner’s habits.

Konate, 27, took the other door. Talks on a new Anfield deal ran for months and then stopped. Liverpool said in May that he would leave on 30 June. On 18 June, while he was at the World Cup with France, Real Madrid posted an agreement until 30 June 2030.

Real Madrid C. F. and Ibrahima Konaté have reached an agreement for him to become a Real Madrid player for the next four seasons, until June 30, 2030.

Real Madrid, official announcement, 18 June 2026

He arrived from RB Leipzig in 2021 and made 183 appearances, with a league title in 2024-25 in the middle of that run. He is the second high-profile Anfield defender in two summers to join Madrid after Trent Alexander-Arnold in 2025, and the move sits inside Real Madrid’s free-transfer harvest from the Premier League, which also pulled Bernardo Silva from Manchester City.

THE SUMMER THE CONTRACTS ENDED

1. 5 June 2026: Robertson completes his free move to Tottenham.
2. 9 June 2026: Liverpool posts the retained list of 12 leavers.
3. 18 June 2026: Real Madrid announces Konate on a deal running four seasons.
4. 30 June 2026: The 12 contracts expire and the players are off the books.
5. 6 August 2026: Salah signs a two-year contract with Trabzonspor.

Liverpool’s return on that sequence was zero pounds in transfer fees. The wage bill got lighter. The sporting cost sat with whoever had to replace a starting left-back, a starting centre-back, and the club’s record Premier League scorer in the same close season.

Where Did Mohamed Salah Go After Liverpool?

Mohamed Salah signed a two-year contract with Trabzonspor on 6 August after flying into Turkey the day before, ending a nine-year Anfield stay that the club now files under past players. Trabzonspor set the package at €17 million ($19.6 million) a year, a €10 million salary plus a €7 million signing-on fee each season, with a cut of Salah-related merchandise on top.

He was 34, and the Super Lig side had finished third in Turkey the season before, with a cup as well and a place in Europa League qualifying. Al-Hilal and other Saudi clubs had been in the conversation for months. Besiktas made a run and then stepped back. Trabzonspor were the club that put a shirt on him.

The Liverpool record he took east is the one the club now prints on his former player page: 257 goals and 120 assists from 442 appearances between 2017 and 2026. Only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt have scored more in a red shirt. He holds the Premier League mark for goal involvements for a single club, and the ranking on the club’s own “Greatest” list is No. 4.

SALAH IN LIVERPOOL NUMBERS

• The haul: 257 goals and 120 assists in 442 games from 2017 to 2026.
• The medals: Two league titles (2019-20, 2024-25), the 2019 Champions League, the Club World Cup, the Super Cup, the 2022 FA Cup, and League Cups in 2022 and 2024.
• The last season: 12 goals in a fifth-place year, with a guard of honour on the final day against Brentford.
• The next shirt: A two-year Trabzonspor deal announced on 6 August.

He had already told the club, months before that Brentford afternoon, that the chapter was closing. The retained list only made the paperwork match the goodbye. Egypt took him to the World Cup round of 16 in between, and then the Black Sea club presented him at Papara Park.

The Ball Boy, the Centre-Back and the Rest

The other nine names were never going to move a transfer window on their own, and that is why they vanished under Salah’s headline. They still tell you what kind of summer this was. Liverpool did not only lose three first-team regulars. It cleared a layer of academy time-servers at the same moment.

Rhys Williams had been at the club 15 years. He played in the first team during the 2020-21 injury crisis and then spent the rest of his contract on the outside of the squad. By late June he was on trial with New York Red Bulls. The retained list simply confirmed he would not be coming back to Kirkby.

Oakley Cannonier, 22, is still the ball boy from the 2019 night against Barcelona, the kid who got the ball to Trent Alexander-Arnold for the corner that Divock Origi finished. Origi had just announced his retirement when Cannonier’s name landed on the released sheet. James Balagizi, another 22-year-old, had sat on the senior bench twice in 2021-22 and never forced the issue. The rest, from keepers DJ Bernard and Jacob Poytress to defenders Josh Davidson, Terence Miles and Emmanuel Airoboma and forward Kareem Ahmed, were the standard June clear-out of players whose next step is somewhere else.

That is the part of a retained list most people skip. The three stars change other clubs. The academy names change their own lives, usually without a press release on the other side.

Eight Academy Players Were Offered New Terms

The other half of the 9 June note was a stay-if-you-want list. Liverpool said contract offers had gone to eight academy players whose deals were running out, and the expectation around Kirkby was that they would sign.

THE EIGHT OFFERED NEW DEALS

• Prince Cisse: A 17-year-old centre-back, son of former Liverpool forward Djibril Cisse, in line for a first professional contract.
• Keyrol Figueroa: A 19-year-old centre-forward, son of former Honduras full-back Maynor Figueroa, who had just made his Honduras debut against Argentina.
• Kyle Kelly: Offered fresh terms as his existing deal expired.
• Afolami Onanuga: Offered fresh terms as his existing deal expired.
• Oliver O’Connor: Offered fresh terms as his existing deal expired.
• Lucas Pitt: Offered fresh terms as his existing deal expired.
• Ben Trueman: Offered fresh terms as his existing deal expired.
• Matthew Wright: Offered fresh terms as his existing deal expired.

Cisse and Figueroa were the two the club was prepared to talk about in public, because both carry a famous surname and both are rated inside the building. The other six were quieter business. An offer is not a signing, and a signing is not a first-team place, but it is the opposite of the 12-name goodbye: Liverpool still wants those eight in the building.

Iraola’s Early Weeks Without That Spine

Andoni Iraola inherited the gap. Arne Slot was gone after the fifth-place season, a year after the 2024-25 title, and the new head coach had to start a Premier League campaign without Salah, Robertson and Konate. The replacements did not come on frees. Jeremy Jacquet arrived from Rennes, Victor Munoz from Osasuna, Ronald Araujo on loan from Barcelona, and Bradley Barcola from Paris Saint-Germain in the last days of the window.

The first two league games were 2-2 draws, at Newcastle and at home to Nottingham Forest, with Munoz snatching the Anfield point. On 4 September at Ipswich, Alexander Isak scored in the sixth minute and again in the ninth, Jacquet lasted a full match, Araujo started, and Barcola came off the bench. Liverpool won 2-0. That is 5 points from three league games, and Iraola’s first win in the job.

Three nights later at Anfield, Alexis Mac Allister hit the winner in a 2-1 Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid. Barcola started and went off with cramp. Iraola said there was no injury, only fitness to build after a summer with no pre-season minutes at PSG. Jacquet was in the back line that used to have Konate in it. The new team can already put a result on the board. It is still a new team.

The title side from 12 months earlier has been taken apart in stages, Alexander-Arnold first, then this retained list, with other senior sales around it. Rivals who paid nothing now have the men Liverpool used to call starters. Anfield has the invoices for the next versions, and a 2-1 night against Atletico to show the rebuild has started.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Did Liverpool’s 12 Released Players Come Off the Books?

Their contracts expired on 30 June 2026, the standard Premier League date for out-of-contract players. Robertson had already completed his Tottenham move on 5 June and waited for that date to become a Spurs player. Konate’s Madrid deal was announced on 18 June and also waited on the same expiry. Salah remained a free agent through the World Cup and signed for Trabzonspor on 6 August.

What Is a Premier League Retained List?

Each club tells the league which out-of-contract players it is keeping, offering new terms, or letting go. A contracted player whose deal ends on 30 June leaves on a free transfer if the club does not offer a new contract. Scholars, the younger academy group, are listed as released rather than as free transfers. The list is a snapshot when it is filed and can change if a player later signs fresh terms.

Which Honours Did Mohamed Salah Win at Liverpool?

He won eight major trophies: league titles in 2019-20 and 2024-25, the 2019 Champions League, the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup, the 2019 UEFA Super Cup, the 2022 FA Cup, and League Cups in 2022 and 2024. He also won four Premier League Golden Boots, in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2021-22 and 2024-25, plus three PFA Players’ Player of the Year awards and three FWA Footballer of the Year prizes.

Who Is Prince Cisse’s Father?

Prince Cisse is the son of Djibril Cisse, the France forward who played for Liverpool in the mid-2000s. The 17-year-old centre-back was offered a first professional contract on the 9 June retained list, one of eight academy players Liverpool asked to stay.

Where Did Ibrahima Konate Play Before Liverpool?

Konate came through FC Sochaux, moved to RB Leipzig, and joined Liverpool from Leipzig in 2021. He left on a free in 2026 after 183 appearances and signed a four-season Real Madrid contract through 30 June 2030.