Manchester City held their annual academy awards on Thursday night, attended by outgoing Sporting Director Txiki Begiristain and his replacement Hugo Viana.
Comments
Sport
Kingsley Coman of FC Bayern Muenchen and Florian Wirtz of Bayer 04 Leverkusen battle for the ball during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern München at BayArena on February 15, 2025 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by GSI/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
Kingsley Coman of FC Bayern Muenchen and Florian Wirtz of Bayer 04 Leverkusen battle for the ball during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern München at BayArena on February 15, 2025 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by GSI/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
Bayern Munich have reacted to Florian Wirtz's trip to England this week to hold talks with Manchester City, insisting the transfer discussions are purely speculation and 'nobody knows' where the forward will end up this summer.
Germany international Wirtz is a target of City this summer, and his parents flew to Manchester for the day earlier this week and reports suggest he also met with representatives from Liverpool over a potential switch to Anfield. Bayern Munich also want the 22-year-old who could cost a club-record transfer fee if City win the race to sign him.
German media had recently suggested that Wirtz had agreed to join Bayern, only for the news of his family's whistle-stop tour of the North West to emerge and now Bayern Sporting Director Max Eberl has opened up on the difficulties of chasing a player like Wirtz in a different summer for conducting major transfers.
"We're not here to determine the boys' travel destinations, and we're not allowed to say he can go here and he can't go there. He's free to visit who knows which cities with his family," Eberl said on Friday.
"If Florian Wirtz and his family made this trip, they'll have their reasons. It's not our place to comment on that. He is free to visit Liverpool, Manchester, Madrid or whatever with his family and friends."
"There's a lot of speculation in Munich, and everyone has their own opinion. Of course, that doesn't make things easy. With the Club World Cup, this summer is obviously special. I try to ignore it as much as possible."
Eberl insisted that Bayern will attempt to continue to work behind the scenes and put the speculation over Wirtz transfer decision to one side, continuing: "We have to ignore the speculation so we can conduct our business calmly. That's what we did with the contract extensions and we want to do the same with transfers.
"For now, he's under contract with Bayer Leverkusen. We can't let all the speculation—agreement reached, contract signed—get to us. We're doing our job and perhaps know the facts better than all the speculation going on around us."
Content Image
Content Image
---
Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.
Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.
*And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.*