By Ultan Corcoran@UltanCorcoran
Wirtz's former teammate at Leverkusen revealed he pleaded with the star not to join the German record champions.
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Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images.
As revealed on the Spielmacher podcast, Bayer Leverkusen's Robert Andrich says he told Florian Wirtz – “Please don't go to Bayern”.
“I honestly thought he'd go there [to Bayern]. I told him at some point: Please don’t do it. Don’t do this to us," the 31-year-old said.
"You can say that for German football, we need German talents to stay here - but in the end there's only Bayern Munich at the very top when we talk about quality like Flo's.
"I wanted him to go abroad. I told the Bayern guys that, too. I was happy for him that he took the step [to leave Germany].
"I wouldn't have thought he'd dare to go abroad so soon," Andrich explained, as his former Leverkusen teammate left for Liverpool in June 2025.
Since making his €125million move to the red half of Merseyside, the 22-year-old has provided 2 goals and 3 assists in 25 games to date.