Bayer Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro claims Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz would have ended up at Real Madrid had they made a concrete attempt last summer.
The Bundesliga side’s official was the guests on [Sport1](https://www.sport1.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/2025/11/bayer-boss-so-war-das-wirklich-mit-wirtz-bayern-und-liverpool)‘s Doppelpass and talked about the 22-year-old. He spent five years at Bayer Leverkusen and left them for Liverpool in June.
Prior to his move to Liverpool, Bayern Munich had shown interest. There was also talk about Real Madrid as an option for Wirtz.
Xabi Alonso managed the 22-year-old at Bayer Leverkusen and left the German club for Real Madrid. Carro insists the attacking midfielder would have picked Real Madrid over Liverpool if they had made an offer.
He also claims Bayer Leverkusen were ready to make an effort to retain the player before he decided to join the Reds.
_“The Wirtz family and Florian knew that extending his contract was our top priority. We were very cautious with salaries during the summer transfers. But we would have been prepared to make an exception for Florian,”_ he said.
_“We were prepared to push the boundaries and give everything to extend his contract. And for a while, it looked like it might work out._
_“In the end, Florian decided for himself what he wanted to do. The parents are his advisors, and I think it’s good that they fully respect Florian’s wishes.”_
Alonso guided Bayer Leverkusen to title success during the 2023/24 season and the Germany international was a key player in his squad.
Wirtz has the desire to win the Champions League, which he felt wasn’t possible with his former club. The German club’s CEO insists Real Madrid, who have won the Europe’s elite club competition for record 15 times, had an opportunity to secure his services last summer.
_“He’s someone who wants to win the Champions League. We thought that with this team we would have been capable of going further than we did. He saw that we had won the Bundesliga title, but winning the Champions League with Bayer Leverkusen might be more difficult,”_ Carro explained.
_“He would definitely have gone to Madrid if Xabi had made the offer. But Xabi has less say at Madrid than he does with us._
_“One of Alonso’s greatest strengths was his ability to work with our scouting department to define who needed to be in our team. Florentino Pérez decides the transfers, not Xabi Alonso.”_