Liverpool delivered an enormous assertion of intent after successful the Premier League title by signing Germany star Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
The switch charge may climb to 116 million kilos ($156m), which might make the 22-year-old Wirtz the most costly participant within the historical past of British soccer.
“I really feel very blissful and really proud,” Wirtz informed the official Liverpool web site on Friday. “Lastly, it’s finished, 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 fully new, to exit of the Bundesliga and to affix the Premier League.
“I’ll see how I can carry out there. I hope I can do my greatest. I spoke additionally with some gamers who performed there, and so they informed me that it’s good for me and each pitch is ideal, you’ll be able to take pleasure in each recreation. I’m actually trying ahead to taking part in my first recreation.”
Liverpool, decided to maintain shifting ahead regardless of securing a record-tying 20th English top-flight title, splashed out a membership document to herald not solely top-of-the-line gamers from Germany, however one of many high children on this planet.
Wirtz has been a key first-team participant for Leverkusen since he was 17. He was the excellent attacking participant within the crew that gained the Bundesliga and German Cup in 2023-24 with out shedding a recreation, and is a daily in Germany’s nationwide crew.
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 document for an preliminary charge 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 time and signed only one outfield participant — ahead Federico Chiesa — for the 2024-25 season.
Chiesa barely performed and the Reds gained 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 chance to affix Bayern Munich — a Bundesliga rival which has lengthy pursued him.
One impediment to that transfer was the dimensions of the charge Leverkusen wished. One other was concern over how Wirtz may match into the identical lineup as Jamal Musiala, Germany’s different standout younger attacking midfielder.
Dropping Wirtz leaves Leverkusen and its new coach, Erik ten Hag with a good 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 Could 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 document has since been toppled.
Wirtz’s versatile attacking midfield play was a significant ingredient in Alonso reworking Leverkusen right into a crew that would win the Bundesliga and German Cup with out shedding 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 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 out to be a significant participant for the German nationwide crew with 29 caps. He performed all 5 of its matches at Euro 2024 on dwelling soil.
He has additionally needed to cope 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 function in his profession — they have been additionally his brokers till final 12 months — and he’s near his older sister Juliane, knowledgeable 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 informed broadcaster n-tv final month. “However he desires to get out of his consolation zone.”
Wirtz appears prone to slot in because the No. 10 at Liverpool, a extra artistic answer in that function 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 may drop again into one of many two deeper midfield positions, competing with Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones.
