Liverpool and Chelsea shown Wirtz has best-in-world potential

6 Nov 2023 11:50 GMT
4 min read

Florian Wirtz and Jonas Hofmann celebrate scoring for Bayer against Freiburg — © ProShots

Florian Wirtz has been linked with a transfer to a string of Premier League clubs, with Liverpool the latest team associated with the Bayer Leverkusen star.

Jurgen Klopp’s side reportedly see the creative midfielder as an ideal addition to their ranks but they are likely to face competition from elsewhere for the 20-year-old.

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FootballTransfers exclusively revealed in the summer that Manchester City have been closely following the Germany international, while Chelsea and Bayern Munich are also interested in the player.

But just how good is Wirtz, who has been given a €100 million price tag by Leverkusen?

What position does Wirtz play and how good can he become?

Wirtz is primarily a right-footed central attacker, but he is also capable of playing out on the left as an inverted winger.

Already this season he posts six goals and nine assists in 15 appearances across all competitions, having a hand in a goal on average once every 66 minutes he’s on the field.

This is a remarkable production rate for such a young player, and especially when it is considered that he missed a large part of 2022 after sustaining a serious knee injury. His recovery from that issue took time, but he’s now fully back.

Wirtz is so good that data analytic experts SciSports rate him as having a ceiling that could make him one of the best players in the world.

Using an algorithm that gives players a SciSkill potential based on in-game data points, Wirtz is given a ceiling of 145.6 – higher than Erling Haaland, who is presently the best individual in world football, according to the analytics company, with a score of 141.6.

10 players with most potential (SciSports)

Name	Club	SciSkill Potential
Erling Haaland	Man City	167.3
Gavi	Barcelona	157.3
Eduardo Camavinga	Real Madrid	150.3
Phil Foden	Man City	149.7
Jude Bellingham	Real Madrid	148.5
Jamal Musiala	Bayern Munich	147.4
Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	146.9
Gabriel Martinelli	Arsenal	146.0
Florian Wirtz	Leverkusen	145.6
Pedri	Barcelona	145.0

MORE: Bundesliga tax? Man City and Liverpool target Wirtz is ready for the Premier League

Of course, Wirtz is not alone in having the capacity to break this tally – Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Jamal Musiala are some of the seven players capable of surpassing Haaland’s current score (plus there is also a big room for improvement from the Norway star) – but this is the type of company he is keeping.

Given his current production and what he might become, €100m would be a bargain for Liverpool, Chelsea or Bayern. There is no doubt Wirtz is a player with world-class potential.