Liverpool delivered an enormous assertion of intent after profitable the Premier League title by signing Germany star Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
The switch payment might climb to 116 million kilos ($156m), which might make the 22-year-old Wirtz the costliest participant within the historical past of British soccer.
“I really feel very completely satisfied and really proud,” Wirtz advised the official Liverpool web site on Friday. “Lastly, it’s completed, and I used to be ready for a very long time.
“I’m actually excited to have a brand new journey in entrance of me. This was additionally an enormous level of my ideas: That I need to have one thing utterly new, to exit of the Bundesliga and to hitch the Premier League.
“I’ll see how I can carry out there. I hope I can do my finest. I spoke additionally with some gamers who performed there, and so they advised me that it’s good for me and each pitch is ideal, you possibly can take pleasure in each sport. I’m actually wanting ahead to taking part in my first sport.”
Liverpool, decided to maintain shifting ahead regardless of securing a record-tying twentieth English top-flight title, splashed out a membership file to usher in not solely top-of-the-line gamers from Germany, however one of many high kids on the earth.
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 sport, and is a daily in Germany’s nationwide workforce.
It’s why Liverpool was able to pay a assured 100 million kilos ($134.4m), plus 16 million kilos ($21.5m) in potential add-ons. Wirtz had two years left on his contract, giving Leverkusen leverage in negotiations.
The Premier League file for an preliminary payment was set when Chelsea signed Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for 106.7 million kilos ($131.4m on the time) in 2023, earlier than the London membership agreed to pay as much as 115 million kilos ($146m on the time) for midfielder Moises Caicedo from Brighton later that 12 months.
Liverpool supervisor Arne Slot arrived final summer season 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 massive plans for this switch window.
Having already signed right-wing again Jeremie Frimpong from Leverkusen for a reported 35 to 40 million euros ($39.7 million to $45.4 million), Liverpool has returned to the German membership to take Wirtz, who rejected a possibility to hitch Bayern Munich — a Bundesliga rival which has lengthy pursued him.
One impediment to that transfer was the dimensions of the payment 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 its new coach, Erik ten Hag with a fair larger rebuild following the departure of Xabi Alonso for Actual Madrid.
Simply after his seventeenth birthday, Wirtz grew to become 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 file has since been toppled.
Wirtz’s versatile attacking midfield play was a significant ingredient in Alonso reworking Leverkusen right into a workforce that might win the Bundesliga and German Cup with out dropping a sport.
He and Alonso stayed for an additional 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 take care of 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 a significant participant for the German nationwide workforce with 29 caps. He performed all 5 of its matches at Euro 2024 on dwelling soil.
He has additionally needed to deal with 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 (six miles) aside, so going to Liverpool would be the first time that Wirtz has moved away from his roots.
His dad and mom, Hans Wirtz and Karin Gross, have performed an enormous position in his profession — they have been additionally his brokers till final 12 months — and he’s near his older sister Juliane, an expert participant for Werder Bremen within the ladies’s Bundesliga.
Wirtz’s choice to show down Bayern and the Bundesliga for Liverpool has raised some eyebrows in Germany.
“I wouldn’t have thought Florian would make this change so early,” former Germany nice Lothar Matthaus advised broadcaster n-tv final month. “However he desires to get out of his consolation zone.”
Wirtz appears more likely to slot in because the No. 10 at Liverpool, a extra artistic answer in that position in contrast 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 might drop again into one of many two deeper midfield positions, competing with Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones.
