- Liverpool will pay an initial £100m fee which could rise through bonuses
- Wirtz has completed his Liverpool medical after returning from holiday
Liverpool have confirmed the signing of German superstar Florian Wirtz for £100million on a five-year deal.
The Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder, 22, signs for the Reds after a month-long saga that saw him reject Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Real Madrid.
It falls shy of the British transfer record though Liverpool, arguably, will want to see that change. If all add-ons are met, it will smash Moises Caicedo’s current record and rise to £116m.
But it does mean their spending will rise to north of £200m at least this summer with Bournemouth left back Milos Kerkez also on the verge of signing for £40m, as Mail Sport reported on Thursday.
They have already bought Wirtz’ Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong for £29.5m and spent £29m on Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Sporting director Richard Hughes led discussions with Leverkusen and Arne Slot sold Wirtz a vision of playing as an attacking midfielder.
Liverpool have signed Florian Wirtz in £116m British record transfer from Bayer Leverkusen
The German international underwent his Liverpool medical after returning from holiday
The signing of Wirtz represents a major coup for Arne Slot’s Premier League champions
It is believed that in games when Liverpool are dominating, they foresee Wirtz floating all over the attack.
They will have to balance the books with sales but their summer business may continue after with them still having designs on a No 9 and defender.
Shortly after signing his deal with the club, Wirtz told the club’s official website: ‘I feel very happy and very proud. Finally it’s done and I was waiting for a long time – finally it’s done and I am really happy.
‘I’m really excited to have a new adventure in front of me.
‘This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and to join the Premier League.
‘I will see how I can perform there. I hope I can do my best. I spoke also with some players who played there and they told me that it’s perfect for me and every pitch is perfect, you can enjoy every game.
‘I’m really looking forward to playing my first game.’
Asked about his targets with the club, he added: ‘I would like to win everything every year! First of all, we have to do our work, I have to make my work.
The deal vastly eclipses the £85m club record fee Liverpool could have paid for Darwin Nunez
Liverpool view the deal similarly to big-money deals for Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker
Arne Slot, it is understood, sees him as a No 10 but he can operate in various different roles
In the 2023-24 season, Wirtz (centre) was the star man as Leverkusen went unbeaten to win an against-the-odds Bundesliga title and German Cup
Wirtz joins Jeremie Frimpong in swapping Leverkusen for Liverpool this summer
‘In the end, we want to be successful. Last season they won the Premier League so my goal is for sure to win it again and also to go further in the Champions League. I’m really ambitious.’
Wirtz’s official squad number for Liverpool will be confirmed later this summer.