Florian Wirtz: How Liverpool won the battle for German starlet

Florian Wirtz sat and listened. To Pep Guardiola, to Vincent Kompany and to Arne Slot, three of Europe’s most high-profile coaches who had each turned salesman in the hope of enticing a precocious talent to their club.

For some, those pitches would prove easier than for others. The respective title successes of Bayern Munich and Liverpool offered Kompany and Slot an easy introduction to Bayer Leverkusen’s starlet, though Guardiola, for once, did not have that luxury.

He could sell a vision to Wirtz of stepping into the void created by the departure of Kevin De Bruyne and of becoming the hub around whom City would seek to get back on their perch after a rare trophyless campaign.

Yet City’s biggest attraction is arguably Guardiola himself and the chance to work under one of the greatest coaches of the modern era. With that in mind, what happened next depends on who you believe. City, the club that pays Erling Haaland a large fortune and lavished £100million on Jack Grealish before casting him into the shadows, claimed they were pulling out of the race for Wirtz’s signature because of the cost involved, which they estimated to be £250million split between a £126million fee and a five-year contract.

Alternatively, several sources, including those in Germany, have indicated that Wirtz enquired about how long Guardiola would remain in charge given his contract is due to expire in 2027. According to the German publication Bild, the Catalan was not emphatic and so it was Wirtz who turned down City, not the other way round.

Advertisement

That left two suitors — Bayern and Liverpool. Real Madrid have been credited with a long-standing interest in the player but, ultimately, look to have had priorities elsewhere. It should be noted that heading into the final week of the Premier League season, Liverpool considered the Bundesliga champions to be favourites.

The biggest club in Germany had just recaptured their crown from Wirtz’s Leverkusen and the expectation was that they would consolidate such status by now taking the best player from the team who ended their 11-year title-winning streak in 2023-24.

Wirtz firmly established himself as one of the best young attacking talents in the world when Leverkusen won the Bundesliga title in 2023-24 HESHAM ELSHERIF/NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

There have been suggestions that Bayern were overconfident about signing Wirtz, whose father and agent, Hans-Joachim Wirtz, was well known to the club’s honorary president Uli Hoeness, and that, as a result, they did not speak to him properly until May 18.

How Wirtz, 22, would fit into the line-up alongside Jamal Musiala had been mooted as a potential headache for Kompany during talks, although it is difficult to believe — given the size of the potential transfer fee — that such a consideration had not been properly thought through.

Slot’s sales pitch was arguably more straightforward. At Anfield, Wirtz could be the No10, or indeed play elsewhere given his versatility. There was the added lure of working under a coach who had eked improvement from elite stars Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, as well as those such as Ryan Gravenberch who had a little more to prove.

Advertisement

England represented a new challenge, a step outside Wirtz’s comfort zone and, arguably, the best sporting project, something which has always taken precedence in his career above financial rewards. There is the story that when he joined Leverkusen at the age of 16, his parents gave him a monthly allowance of €150 (about £125).

Wirtz is close to Frimpong, who has already signed for Liverpool JAN FROMME/GETTY IMAGES

Winning a first title in Leverkusen’s history had been an outstanding achievement, whereas winning with Bayern would have carried an air of normality.

Wirtz is close friends with another player who has arrived at Liverpool from Leverkusen, Jeremie Frimpong, who used to drive his team-mate to training and sit next to him in the dressing room, which should help him assimilate. However, it was the possibility of testing himself in what he considers to be the best league in the world that truly appealed.

Wirtz is also said to have been impressed by Anfield and the training ground facilities which Leverkusen used the day after their 4-0 Champions League defeat by Liverpool last November. The manner in which Xabi Alonso’s side had collapsed in the second half served as a shock to a team that had become accustomed to winning, but also signposted Liverpool’s emergence.

Slot also had another ace up his sleeve. The celebrations after the win over Tottenham Hotspur, which had sealed Liverpool’s 20th title success, showed the power of the club. “Winning the league, having these fans, this is a big attraction to every player we want to bring in, and that is definitely helpful,” the Liverpool head coach said.

Advertisement

Liverpool laid down a marker by beating Leverkusen 4-0 in the Champions League last year ANDREW POWELL/GETTY IMAGES

Even allowing for all that, alternatives were being actively considered. Rayan Cherki, who has since joined Manchester City from Lyon, was on a list of targets should Wirtz remain in his homeland either with Bayern or at Leverkusen for another season. Leverkusen had wanted him to sign a new deal with a release clause that would be lower than the €150million that had initially been sought this summer.

The key date was May 23. That was when the momentum swung in Slot’s favour. Bayern were informed that Wirtz saw his future elsewhere and bad news in Bavaria led to elation on Merseyside.

Liverpool, like all of Europe’s elite clubs, had long been aware of Wirtz’s capabilities and had fostered relationships. Being the last team standing owed much to their persistence and ambition, and was another reward for the hierarchy’s intuition that Slot would be the perfect appointment as Klopp’s successor.

The deal is not only a club record, but could become a British record, and for Liverpool to commit this amount of money on one player is significant.

The astonishing numbers involved in signing Wirtz represent a big commitment for Liverpool SEBASTIAN EL-SAQQA/GETTY IMAGES

Whether it is a departure from what they have done previously is an interesting point. Paying £75million for Van Dijk in 2018 would be the equivalent of a £99million fee today. The sporting director at the time Michael Edwards — now the chief executive of football for Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group — would have been prepared to pay even more for the centre back eight years ago because he believed Van Dijk would be transformational.

Advertisement

Liverpool can now shop in markets that they simply could not when Sadio Mané and Salah were recruited in 2016 and 2017 for a combined initial outlay in the region of £65million.

Wirtz has been deemed one of the best attacking midfielders in the world and, together with his young age, that profile costs money. Liverpool will benefit from the best years of his career and, in return, they are gaining not only an attacker but also a first defender. In the Bundesliga last season, only Bayern’s Michael Olise (37 times) won possession more than Wirtz’s 35 in the final third, which demonstrates his willingness to press.

And he can handle being pressed, too. Among wingers and attacking midfielders with 200 or more passes attempted under high-intensity pressure in the Champions League in 2024-25, only City’s Phil Foden (89.4 per cent, with 194 successful passes from 217 attempted) ranked ahead of Wirtz (88.8 per cent, with 302 from 340) for completion rate.

The complete package? Well, Philipp Lahm, the former Germany defender, wrote in The Athletic that Wirtz, who sustained an ACL injury against former club Cologne in March 2022, needed to be more “physically durable” and that he did not like being man-marked. Yet Lahm added he would be “ideal” for Slot’s system which embodies “pace, vertical direction and a clear allocation of roles”.

Moves from the Bundesliga to the Premier League have not always worked out. For every Haaland there has been a Naby Keïta or Timo Werner, but the view at Liverpool is that Wirtz is someone who will make the difference — and a player for whom it was worth breaking the bank.

Click here to read article