Florian Wirtz has been one of Xabi Alonso's key players at Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen's Spanish head coach Xabi Alonso (R) celebrates with Bayer Leverkusen's German midfielder #10 Florian Wirtz
If anybody knows Florian Wirtz best as a footballer, it would be Xabi Alonso. After winning the Champions League and FA Cup at Liverpool, the Spaniard would go on to craft an equally impressive managerial career in Germany.
There he has managed Wirtz in 118 matches at Bayer Leverkusen. The pair have been unstoppable as manager and player, but now their partnership looks set to come to an end.
Alonso is all but certain to join Real Madrid, but for Wirtz, he has been linked with a whole host of clubs over the past 24 hours.
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Bayern Munich and Manchester City have both been linked, but it was reported by The Athletic on Wednesday evening that Liverpool have made contact with Wirtz's representatives to express an interest in signing him if he leaves Leverkusen and is keen on moving to England.
The report goes on to claim that Liverpool’s admiration is long-standing, but it is unclear whether Wirtz intends to depart Leverkusen or Germany this summer.
But when it comes to Alonso, he has already given a glowing endorsement of Wirtz.
"There are good players and there are players who look good on the pitch," he said back in January 2023. "The player who looks good does things that are nice, but not necessarily efficient.
"Why is Messi so good? Because he knows how and when to play simple passes. Messi says: 'You're in a better position? Here, there you have the ball!' It's not always about making the most brilliant move, but the best and smartest. Florian can do that. That's why he's so good."
More recently Alonso has praised Wirtz's goalscoring too, after the German national had just stuck the ball through opposition defender Eric Smith's legs and slammed the ball into the back of the net in a Bundesliga meeting with St. Pauli last December.
"I haven't seen it on TV yet, but it was great live," said Alonso in a post-match interview. "His control, his dribbling. It's not easy to do that in a tight space.
"He is a special player for us. We're happy that he's here and gives us that extra quality," said the Spaniard, who refused to take any credit for the goal.
"He has a top mentality and I had nothing to do with the goal. That's his genius, his moment."