Liverpool are poised to complete the signing of the summer after agreeing a fee with Bayer Leverkusen to sign Florian Wirtz in a deal that means the Anfield club have their most exciting creative force since Philippe Coutinho.
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The size of the exact fee varies depending on which source you believe. While the fee was initially expected to be in the region of €150 million, the consensus is that Liverpool have whittled this down to something more like €135m.
The Times, for instance, reports that Liverpool will pay an initial €117.5 million to sign Wirtz with a potential €19m to follow. Sky Germany, however, reports that the Reds will pay €135m up front with bonuses worth €15m.
Either way, this is good value for a player who undoubtedly has enormous potential. Data analytics firm SciSports rate the 22-year-old so highly that they have given him the sixth-highest ceiling in the game. Those above him? Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, Jamal Musiala, Erling Haaland and, more surprisingly, future Liverpool team-mate Ryan Gravenberch.
According to the data, he has the capacity to become better than the likes of Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Pedri and any other superstar footballer you care to think of.
Players with the most potential (SciSports, June 2025)
Name
Club
Potential
Lamine Yamal
Barcelona
170.6
Pau Cubarsi
Barcelona
160.8
Jamal Musiala
Bayern Munich
159.2
Erling Haaland
Manchester City
153.2
Ryan Gravenberch
Liverpool
153.3
Florian Wirtz
Bayer Leverkusen
152.2
New approach but Liverpool are as smart as ever
With this in mind, Liverpool are right to break the bank for the Pulheim-born superstar. Indeed, though their €117.5m agreement represents a shattering of the club-record transfer fee, it actually stands below Wirtz’s €123m Estimated Transfer Value (ETV), which has peaked above €133m in the past.
The Reds may have a new recruitment team, headed by sporting director Richard Hughes, which has a fresh, big-spending approach, but that doesn’t mean that the nose for a bargain that the Anfield club are renowned for has been lost.
There is nothing about Wirtz’s game that fails to stand up to analysis. He’s athletically impressive, possessing both speed and stamina, while in terms of his performance, SciSports rates him as the Bundesliga’s best attacking midfielder in the 2024/25 campaign by quite some distance.
Wirtz vs Bundesliga attacking midfielders: Overall performance (2024/25)
Indeed, it’s telling how impressive Wirtz has been over the past couple of seasons, during which he has bounced back from a serious knee injury, that his return of 10 goals and 11 assists in 31 Bundesliga matches was almost considered a disappointment.
Hitting double figures in both categories is an impressive achievement. Liverpool’s Mo Salah, Barcelona’s Raphinha, PSG’s Bardley Barcola and Napoli’s Romelu Lukaku were the only other players across Europe’s major leagues to do so.
A genuine €100m star
Bundesliga expert Ronan Murphy is confident Wirtz will shine in the Premier League and says there is more to the 31-capped attacker than offensive output. Indeed, he believes that, unlike many other big-money signings who have flopped, the German will more than live up to his price tag.
Murphy says: “Few players over €100m have actually been worth €100m. If you look at the list of the most expensive transfers of all time, most of them have not lived up to the hype. Florian Wirtz will. He is different.
“In a world where footballers are now mathematically trained on what to do at every moment, the truly technically brilliant individuals sparkle even more. It's why Lamine Yamal is being hyped as a Ballon d'Or winner as a teenager. And it's why Wirtz will be worth every penny Liverpool pay for him.
“The Reds have not had a player capable of Wirtz's kind of magic since peak Coutinho. Someone who could bamboozle defenders and outfox goalkeepers without breaking a sweat. And on top of that, he's a pressing machine. If anything, they might end up getting a bargain with him.”
The Premier League better brace itself because Arne Slot’s champions just got even stronger.
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