Liverpool approached the negotiating table and offered €134 million to Bayer Leverkusen in order to get the signature of Florian Wirtz. That is according to The Athletic. The payment will be in the form of €118.7 million in down payment and €15.4 million in bonuses. The English club are not losing any time and have placed the midfielder from Germany in their priority wishlist in the window. A little detail that is making all the difference: Wirtz already showed that he prefers to play with Liverpool and not with Bayern Munich to whom they were negotiating as well.
According to the same source, the player has already visited England in pursuit of homes, meaning that negotiations are in their final stages.
Florian Wirtz is the current leading name in the marketplace
Already at the age of just 22, Wirtz is Germany's star player. Bayer Leverkusen's star player in pursuit of the title in the 2023/24 campaign, Wirtz scored 18 and provided another 20, figures that earned him the vote of the league's Player of the Season. In his subsequent campaign, he continued his lofty performances with 16 and 15.
Wirtz has scored 57 and furnished 65 in 197 since he went professional in 2019. That is 122 direct inputs. For Germany, he has played in 30 fixtures and scored two. The statistics are decent, but more notably is his impact on the game. Under the tutelage of Xabi Alonso, he was used in a 3-4-2-1 or deepest-lying midfielder in a 3-4-1-2. On both the right and left side of the midfielder, he can play by virtue of his versatility in positions.
Wirtz is also skilled in generating runs into the back of opposition defenses and in advancing the team by carrying the ball between the defending opposition and the opposition's midfield.
Wirtz's decision makes it obvious where he is going
Bayern came, as they always do with any of their Bundesliga stars. But they were rebuffed. Wirtz's representatives informed the Bavarians the player would prefer to join Liverpool. That changes the dynamics of the deal. It is not about the money.
It is about the personal preference of someone who wants to challenge himself and move to play in another environment. Wirtz's move also serves to highlight the fact that the Premier League remains Europe's prime destination for Europe's best players. And in all those wealthy and hierarchical sides, Liverpool seem to have managed to get the project spot on.