Liverpool delivered an enormous assertion of intent after successful the Premier League title by signing Germany star Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen on Friday.
The switch charge may climb to 116 million kilos ($156 million), which might make the 22-year-old Wirtz the most costly participant within the historical past of British soccer.
Liverpool, decided to not stand nonetheless after securing a record-tying twentieth English top-flight title, have splashed out a membership report to usher in not solely among the best gamers from Germany, however one of many high children on the planet.
Wirtz has been a key first-team participant for Leverkusen since he was 17. He was the excellent attacking participant within the workforce that received the Bundesliga and German Cup in 2023-24 with out dropping a recreation, and is a daily in Germany’s nationwide workforce.
It’s why Liverpool was able to pay a assured 100 million kilos, plus 16 million kilos in potential add-ons. Wirtz had two years left on his contract, giving Leverkusen leverage in negotiations.
The Premier League report for an preliminary charge was set when Chelsea signed Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for 106.7 million kilos ($131.4 million on the time) in 2023, earlier than the London membership agreed to pay as much as 115 million kilos ($146 million on the time) for midfielder Moises Caicedo from Brighton later that yr.
Liverpool supervisor Arne Slot arrived final summer time and signed only one outfield participant — ahead Federico Chiesa — for the 2024-25 season.
Chiesa barely performed and the Reds received the league by 10 factors, after which Slot and a few of his gamers — together with Virgil van Dijk — spoke about there being huge plans for this switch window.
Having already signed proper wing again Jeremie Frimpong from Leverkusen for a reported 35 to 40 million euros ($39.7 million to $45.4 million), Liverpool have returned to the German membership to take Wirtz, who rejected a possibility to affix Bayern Munich — a Bundesliga rival which has lengthy pursued him.
One impediment to that transfer was the scale of the charge Leverkusen needed. One other was concern over how Wirtz would possibly match into the identical lineup as Jamal Musiala, Germany’s different standout younger attacking midfielder.
Shedding Wirtz leaves Leverkusen and their new coach, Erik ten Hag with a fair greater rebuild following the departure of Xabi Alonso for Actual Madrid.
Simply after his seventeenth birthday, Wirtz turned the youngest participant in Leverkusen’s historical past when he made his debut towards Werder Bremen in Might 2020, in an empty stadium on the top of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A month later he was the youngest participant to attain in Bundesliga historical past, although that report has since been topped.
Wirtz’s versatile attacking midfield play was an important ingredient in Alonso remodeling Leverkusen right into a workforce that might win the Bundesliga and German Cup with out dropping a recreation.
He and Alonso stayed for one more sometimes-disappointing season which ended with second place to Bayern within the league and a loss to Bayern within the Champions League spherical of 16.
Wirtz confirmed he can cope with adversity when a cruciate ligament tear in his knee dominated him out for nearly all of 2022 — together with Alonso’s first video games as coach — earlier than he returned to energy Leverkusen to its league and cup double in 2023-24.
Wirtz has turn into an important participant for the German nationwide workforce with 29 caps. He performed all 5 of its matches at Euro 2024 on house soil.
He’s additionally needed to take care of hostility from followers of his boyhood membership Cologne, which he left for close by Leverkusen at 16. Liverpool and Bayern have been reportedly then, too.
Cologne claimed that deal broke an settlement between the golf equipment to not pursue one another’s youth gamers. Leverkusen argued Wirtz was so gifted that he counted as a first-team participant regardless of his age.
Cologne and Leverkusen are barely 10 kilometres (6 miles) aside, so going to Liverpool would be the first time that Wirtz has moved away from his roots.
His mother and father Hans Wirtz and Karin Gross have performed a giant function in his profession — they have been additionally his brokers till final yr — and he’s near his older sister Juliane, knowledgeable participant for Werder Bremen within the girls’s Bundesliga.
Wirtz’s choice to show down Bayern and the Bundesliga for Liverpool has brought on some raised eyebrows in Germany.
“I wouldn’t have thought Florian would make this change so early,” former Germany nice Lothar Matthäus advised broadcaster n-tv final month. “However he needs to get out of his consolation zone.”
Wirtz appears more likely to slot in because the No. 10 at Liverpool, a extra inventive answer in that function in comparison with the hard-running Dominik Szoboszlai.
Whether or not Slot additionally now pushes for a brand new striker as an improve to present choices Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez stays to be seen.
Szoboszlai may drop again into one of many two deeper midfield positions, competing with Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones.
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