Florian Wirtz of Bayer 04 Leverkusen is seen during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and 1. FC Union Berlin at BayArena on April 12, 2025 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)Florian Wirtz of Bayer 04 Leverkusen is seen during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and 1. FC Union Berlin at BayArena on April 12, 2025 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
Florian Wirtz of Bayer 04 Leverkusen is seen during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and 1. FC Union Berlin at BayArena on April 12, 2025 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Liverpool are in negotiations to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
Liverpool are expected to increase their bid to sign Florian Wirtz, reports suggest.
The Reds remain in negotiations with Bayer Leverkusen over signing the attacking midfielder. Liverpool stormed ahead of Bayern Munich and Manchester City in the pursuit of Wirtz, who is regarded as one of the best young players in Europe.
However, Leverkusen have so far been resistant to Liverpool’s pursuit, withThe Times suggesting that the most recent offer of £113 million has been turned down. But according to German newspaper BILD, an agreement is expected to be brokered, with the ‘mega transfer to be finalised in the next few days’.
The report says that Leverkusen and Liverpool ‘must have breathed a sigh of relief’ after Wirtz represented Germany in a 2-0 loss to France in the Nations League third-place play-off. Wirtz featured for 90 minutes in his ‘final appearance as a Bayer Leverkusen player’ having spent five-and-a-half years at the Bay Arena.
BILD suggests that Die Werkself are still trying to hold out for their price tag of £126 million but Liverpool will offer around £118 million that includes a ‘fixed transfer fee and realistic additional payments, possibly with additional bonus payments, which are very difficult to achieve’.
Liverpool have already raided Leverkusen this summer when they signed Jeremie Frimpong. The Reds met the Netherlands international’s release clause of £29.5 million and he moved to Anfield to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold after his exit to Real Madrid.
The Premier League champions are also keen to sign AFC Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez, who is valued at around £45 million.
Liverpool will return for pre-season on Tuesday 8 July as they begin the defence of the English crown. Head coach Arne Slot has admitted that he would ideally like new players to arrive through the door for the start of training.
Speaking after the 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace on the final day of the 2024-25 campaign, Slot said: “We just want good players and ideally you sign them as soon as you can. But it's not always easy to sign good players, let alone to sign them early in the window.
“But this club doesn't start working from today onwards. There is so much hard work being done behind the scenes already this season to find out which targets we have and try to sign them. I have all the confidence that if we've addressed the right player that we try to sign that player. But let's see when that's going to happen and if that's going to happen because I'm very happy with the squad we already have.”
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